Is the Dead Sea as we know it today really in its ideal state?

When Lot first went to live in the area where the Dead Sea is located today, it looked very different. We read in Breisheet 13:10-11: “Lot raised his eyes and saw the entire Jordan Plain, that it was abundantly watered; before God destroyed Sdom and Amora it was like God’s garden, like the land of Egypt going towards Zoar. Lot chose for himself the entire Jordan Plain; Lot journeyed from the east and they separated one from another.”

In Parshat Vayera we see that once Lot, his wife and his daughters were out of Sdom safely in the neighboring town of Zoar, God was ready to destroy Sdom and Amora. In Breisheet 19:24-26 we read: “God caused it to rain upon Sdom and Amora- sulfer and fire- from God from heaven. He overturned these cities, and the entire plain, and all those who lived in the cities and all that grew upon the ground. His wife looked behind him; and she became a pillar of salt.”

Radak explains that after the cities were destroyed nothing else was able to grow there. He adds that not only did Lot’s wife turn to salt, everyone in the cities turned into salt or sulfur. Even though the pasuk doesn’t specify salt being poured down, we see in Devarim 29:22 : “and that the whole land is brimstone and salt and burning, that it is not sown nor bears nor does any grass grow on it like the overthrown Sdom and Amora”. We learn from here that salt was used as well.

In Yechezkel 47:8-9, the prophecy talks about the waters being healed and that fish will live there. Rashi and Mitzudat David say that this is an allusion to the waters of Sdom.

In other words, although the Dead Sea is unique and may be a wonder of the world as well as a place where people from all over the world come to be exposed to the healing salt and mud, ideally, the region should be restored to how it was when Lot first saw it, not as a wasteland but rather as God’s garden.