The ocean is salty and so are tears. A midrash provides a connection between them.
Long before the Jewish people were forced into exile, the waters of earth experienced the same fate. It happened like this:
On the second Creation Day G-d separated all the water in the universe into two parts. The “Upper Waters” would remain in Heaven. The “Lower Waters” He sent down to the earth, to become rivers, oceans and lakes.
The Lower Waters complained, “Why must we be down here, so far away from You!” Gathering themselves into a great wave, they threatened to rise up to Heaven. But G-d commanded, “Stay down where you are,” and the Lower Waters were forced to obey.
Then G-d said to them, “Because you desire to be near to Me, you will have a great reward. When the Jewish people will build the Holy Temple, you will be honored with a place on the altar… you will be sprinkled on every offering in the form of salt. (Midrash cited by Rabbeinu Bachya on Leviticus 2:13)
That’s why the Torah says (Leviticus 2:13) “You shall not let the salt of the covenant of G-d be lacking from your meal-offerings…”
What covenant does the Torah refer to? A covenant is a promise between at least two entities. Here only one, G-d, is named. One might think that the other party is the Jewish people, since they are the ones committed to action on the covenant’s behalf. But according to Rashi, the great medieval explainer of Torah, this verse refers to the covenant that G-d made with the Lower Waters!
Whoa!—we’re just puny little people; how do we get involved in an agreement between the ultimate reality, G-d, and that gigantic primal entity, the Lower Waters? What can we possibly do for these unimaginably great powers? Especially now, when there is no Temple, no altar, and no offerings to receive the sprinkling of salt!
The answer is in your flesh. We human beings are walking, talking salt-water oceans. You know this if you’ve ever cut your finger and touched the wound to your lips, or if you’ve ever wept and allowed a tear to drip into your mouth. Since the beginning of the last century, biochemists have revealed the role of salt in the intimate chemistry of every living cell. Did you pray this morning? Salt water moved in your brain and lips. You visited a sick friend? Salt water moved the muscles of your legs. Any time you use your body for a mitzvah or an ordinary good deed, you’re applying salt to the altar that is our cellular metabolism. You may have thought only that you were lifting up your soul to G-d. But even more, you were lifting the salty Lower Waters of your body back to the spiritual awareness where they long to be.
