Salt and the Mule

The Torah is not always popular. Often, it's perceived as out-of-touch, politically incorrect, or otherwise outmoded and unfashionable. This phenomenon is the backdrop to a story in the Talmud:

The Elders of Athens asked Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananyah:] “When salt spoils, with what can one salt it?”
Rabbi Yehoshua replied: “With the afterbirth of a mule.”
“But does a mule have an afterbirth?”
“And does salt spoil?”

Talmud, Bechoros 8b

When the Elders of Athens spoke about salt, they were referring to Torah, the preservative of the Jewish People. They considered that this preservative had spoiled; that it had become obsolete and irrelevant. After all, those were the glorious days of Greek culture, and many Jews were seeing the
Torah as being old-fashioned. Rather than observe Shabbos, they wanted to strip naked and run in the Olympics; rather than study Torah, they wanted to study Greek philosophy.

It was time, said the Elders, to salt the salt. It was time to change the Torah in order to keep it in the spirit of the day and ensure its popularity. It was time to reform Judaism.

Rabbi Yehoshua replied that they should use the afterbirth of a mule, the offspring of a horse and donkey. At first sight, a mule seems like a wonderful animal; it is strong, sure-footed, resistant to disease, and long-lived. By taking elements of the donkey and of the horse, we seem to have the best of both worlds. It’s just like a Hellenized, modernized Judaism – hybridizing the two cultures in order to have the best of both worlds.

There’s just one problem.
Mules can’t breed. They are sterile.

Rabbi Yehoshua was saying: Do you want to reform Judaism, to combine it with the latest fads? Sure, it will look great, and it will doubtless be very popular. But it won’t last. It’s not authentic and it can’t perpetuate. Torah, the preservative of the Jewish People, will continue to preserve them, as long as it is left pure and unadulterated.