Genesis 18:1 – 22:24 and Amos 2:6-16
Three angels announce to Abraham the upcoming birth of Isaac and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, because the inhabitants are perverted. Abraham implores Hashem to spare the cities if righteous people are found there. Only Lot and his family escape the destruction. Lot’s wife turns into a pillar of salt for having disobeyed the command of Hashem. In the haftara, the prophet Amos emphasizes the importance of living according to principles of justice and equity.
Genesis 19:26
וַתַּבֵּט אֵשֶׁת לֹוט מֵאֲחוֹרָיו וַתְּהִי נִצָּבָה מֶלַח
And Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
Mount Sodom (הר סדום, Har Sedom) is a hill located along the southwestern part of the Dead Sea in Israel. It is part of the Judean Desert Nature Reserve. Composed of about 80% salt, it is covered with a layer of limestone and clay. Measuring about 8 km long, 5 km wide, and 226 m above the water level of the Dead Sea, it is, however, 170 m below the global average sea level.
One pillar is known as Lot’s Wife. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus1 claims to have seen this salt statue. The Sages (Talmud B. Ber. 54a) teach a list of places where one must recite a blessing due to miracles that occurred there, and Lot’s wife is included.
1 Yossef ben Matityahou HaCohen (Joseph son of Matthatias the Priest – יוסף בן מתתיהו הכהן), better known as Flavius Josephus (Titus Flavius Iosephus), born in Jerusalem in 38 and died in Rome around 100, is a Jewish Roman historiographer.