As we begin to read the Book of Leviticus – the book referred to as Torat Kohanim (Instructions for the Priests) by the Sages – we begin reading about sacrifices. As opposed to the particular rules of each sacrifice, two verses set out general rules: “No meal offering that you offer to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for no leaven or honey may be turned into smoke as an offering by fire to the Lord” (Lev. 2:11), and “You shall season your every offering of meal with salt; you shall not omit from your meal offering the salt of your covenant with God; with all your offerings you must offer salt” (2:13). Why are leaven and honey prohibited upon the altar, and why is salt required?

We read of the sacrifice of honey in the Ugaritic Epic of King Keret. Honey is also mentioned as an element in Babylonian purification rites and in descriptions of Egyptian sacrifices. Perhaps this is what Ezekiel was referring to in saying: “Also my bread which I gave you – I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey – you set before them for a pleasing odor” (Ez. 16:19).

The ritual use of bread and honey is also mentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus in describing Egyptian sacrificial rituals: “and this done, they fill the rest of the body of the animal with consecrated loaves and honey and raisins and figs and frankincense and myrrh and every other kind of spices, and having filled it with these they offer it, pouring over it great abundance of oil” (Histories: An Account of Egypt II:40).

Thus, Maimonides writes: “The idolaters did not offer any other bread but leavened, and chose sweet things for their sacrifices, which they seasoned with honey, as is fully described in the books which I named before: but salt is not mentioned in any of their sacrifices. Our Law therefore forbade us to offer leaven or honey, and commanded us to have salt in every sacrifice: ‘with all your offerings you must offer salt’” (Guide for the Perplexed III:46).

In his commentary, Rashi connects the requirement of salt to Creation: “For the covenant was made for salt from the six days of Creation, when the lower waters were promised to be brought upon the altar as salt and as the water offering on the festival of Sukkot”.

R. Bahya b. Asher explains: “The salting of our meat today is like the salting of the meat of the sacrifice”. He adds: “And according to the plain meaning, the reason for salt with the sacrifices is that it would not be respectful to God to offer a bland sacrifice without salt”.

The Etz Hayim Humash explains: “In the case of meat, salt functioned to remove whatever blood remained after slaughter. The unexpected use of salt in grain offerings probably reflects the normal tendency toward uniformity in ritual”.

1. Should the Israelite ritual be understood as a “reaction” intended as a symbolic negation of the idolatrous ritual? Why does the prohibition apply to leaven and honey but not to other items used in pagan rituals, like wine and oil?

2. Why did Rashi wish to use salt as a means for connecting the sacrificial ritual and Creation? Does anything in the verse lend itself to such a conceptual relationship?

3. As opposed to Rashi’s conceptual interpretation, R. Bahya attempts to provide a practical explanation that connects the sacrificial practice with the laws of kashrut. Why? In his “plain meaning” explanation, R. Bahya compares the meat of sacrifice to food prepared for a king. What symbolism does he attribute to the sacrifice? What value lesson does this interpretation derive from the idea of salt?

4. Salt is also mentioned in regard to a covenant with God in the verse “All the sacred gifts that the Israelites set aside for the Lord I give to you, to your sons, and to the daughters that are with you, as a due for all time. It shall be an everlasting covenant of salt before the Lord for you and for your offspring as well” (Numbers 18:19). Might this verse teach us something additional about the meaning of salt in our verse in Leviticus? Is it possible that salt is meant to symbolize or emphasize the eternal nature of the covenant? Does salt represent God or God’s attributes? Why don’t the commentaries raise this possibility?