Comentario sobre Exodo 30:35

ממלח TEMPERED TOGETHER — Understand this as the Targum renders it: מעורב, mixed — that they should thoroughly intermix the powder of the ingredients. I think that similar in meaning to it are the nouns in (Jona 1:5) “Then the mariners (המלחים) were afraid”; (Ezekiel 27:27) “thy mariners (מלחיך) and thy pilots”, who are so called because they turn over (stir up) the water with oars when they propel the ship — like a person who stirs up beaten eggs with a spoon in order to mix them with water. Anything that a person wishes to mix up thoroughly he stirs up with his finger or with a spoon.

MEMULACH’ (SEASONED WITH SALT), PURE AND HOLY. This means that it be seasoned with salt of Sodom, just as the Rabbis have said:¹⁶⁴Kerithoth 6a. “Of salt of Sodom, the fourth part of a kab.” Onkelos translated [memulach as] m’areiv (mixed together). By this he intended to say that memulach means “rubbed out” — that the ingredients should all be so well-ground and mixed so thoroughly together, that their identity is “rubbed out” and none of the [individual] ingredients can be recognized. This is of the expression: For the heavens ‘nimlochu’ (shall vanish away) like smoke.¹⁹¹Isaiah 51:6. Similarly: ‘u’vloyei m’lachim’ (and worn rags);¹⁹²Jeremiah 38:11. A fruitful land ‘limleichah’ (into a salt waste).¹⁹³Psalms 107:34. These are all expressions of destruction and annihilation.
And Rashi explained that the term memluach means that it be thoroughly mixed together in the grinding of the ingredients one with another. To this interpretation Rashi brought proof from the verse similar in meaning: ‘malachayich’ (thy mariners) and thy pilots,¹⁹⁴Ezekiel 27:27. who are so called “because they turn over the water with the oars when they propel the ship, like a person who stirs up beaten eggs with a spoon in order to mix them thoroughly.”
In my opinion mariners are called malachim [of the root melach — salt] because they know the “taste” of the sea, as if they could feel if it is “salty” or “sweet;” that is to say, they know when it will be sweet and pleasant for those travelling by sea, and when it will be bad and bitter for them. It is not those who hold the oars [propelling the ship] who are called malachim [as Rashi said], for it is written on Tyre, The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were thy ‘shotim’ (rowers);¹⁹⁵Ibid., Verse 8. The elders of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers; all the ships of the sea ‘u’malacheyhem’ (and their mariners) were in thee.¹⁹⁶Ibid., Verse 9. For it is the older captains who know the sea that are called malachim. And it is further written, And all that handle the oar, ‘malachim’ (the mariners), and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships, they shall stand upon the land.¹⁹⁷Ibid., Verse 29. Thus three categories are mentioned: those that handle the oar, the mariners, and the pilots [which proves that malachim — the mariners — are not those that handle the oar].
Similarly, a fruitful land ‘limleichah’¹⁹³Psalms 107:34. means “to a salt land,” for in a salt land nothing will grow, just as is written of Sodom, The whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and a burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth,¹⁹⁸Deuteronomy 29:22. and it is further written, and he sowed it with salt.¹⁹⁹Judges 9:45. It is possible that the letter lamed is redundant in the verse, for the heavens ‘nimlochu’ like smoke,¹⁹¹Isaiah 51:6. the intent thereof being as in the word nimchu (erased), which would make it similar to these cases: ba’l'umim;²⁰⁰Psalms 44:15. The structure of the word is ba’umim (among the nations). wholly ‘shalanan’ (at ease) and quiet.²⁰¹Job 21:23. The structure of the word is shanon (ease).

רקח, each of whom would collect different spices and after mixing them all they would become