GEN1270 Jacob’s recognition of Beth El, the House of God, by anointing a rock with olive oil, and the revelation of the Ten Utterances upon the Mountain of God (and the inclusion of salt in the Temple offerings) recognize that what moderns might see as “dead” minerals are filled with Divine life. The offerings at the Mishkan in the Wilderness Leviticus chs. 1-9 and at the shrines in Shiloh 1 Samuel 1:24-25 and Jerusalem 1 Chronicles 23:28-29; 2 Chronicles 7:4-7; Ezra 6:17, 7:17; Nehemiah 10:33-37; Mishnah Tamid passim; Zevahim ch. 5, passim are mostly grain, fruit, and meat, the foods that spring from the soil of the land of Israel. Even pancakes – “fine flour mixed with oil and spice, then turned to smoke upon the Altar” Leviticus 2:1-3 – are a path to God. This practice taught that the relationship between adam [human] and adamah [earth] was the expression of relationship with God. So it is not surprising that biblically, and then in rabbinic tradition, elaboration of proper and improper foods, what was and was not kosher to eat, took on immense importance in defining a sacred life. (By Arthur Waskow, "Jewish Environmental Ethics: Intertwining Adam with Adamah") OXFORD 412