We’ve talked a lot about the need to add oil and frankincense to a meal offering. But up until now, we have focused less on the requirement found in Leviticus 2:13: “You shall season your every offering of grain with salt; you shall not omit from your grain offering the salt of your covenant with God; with all your offerings you must offer salt.”
Leviticus seems unambiguous in its statement that salt is necessary. But while the rabbis agree it should be added, a mishnah we read two days ago states that if the priest forgets to salt the offering, it’s still accepted on the altar.
Not everyone agrees that it should be, though. On today’s daf, we see a series of objections to the ruling of the mishnah, including this one:
Rabbi Shimon says: It is stated here: “It is an everlasting covenant of salt” (Numbers 18:19), and it is stated there (with regard to the reward given to Pinchas): “The covenant of an everlasting priesthood.” (Numbers 25:13) This teaches that just as it is impossible for the offerings to be sacrificed without the involvement of the priesthood, so too, it is impossible for the offerings to be sacrificed without salt.
Rabbi Shimon is employing the analytical method of gezerah shavah, in which the repetition of a word in two different verses is the basis for stating that one verse informs the other. As he sees it, the word “covenant” in Numbers 25:13, which describes the priestly lineage lasting forever, should inform our understanding of the same word in Numbers 18:19, which is about adding salt to sacrificial offerings. His conclusion: The salting is eternal and mandatory.
After some more discussion, the Gemara brings a beraita that attempts to reconcile the two opinions:
One might have thought that the entire meal offering requires salting (including the remainder of the offering that is eaten by the priests). To counter this, the verse states: “And every meal offering (korban) of yours you shall season with salt” (Leviticus 2:13), teaching that the handful, which is burned as an offering (korban) on the altar, requires salting, but the entire meal offering does not require salting.
The beraita here expresses the opinion that the portion offered as a sacrifice on the altar must be salted, but the remainder given to the priests for their consumption need not be. This understanding is a way to reconcile Rabbi Shimon and the mishnah.
A vestige of the salting practice is still relevant centuries later. Rabbi Moshe Isserles, writing in the 16th century, notes that: “It is a mitzvah to put salt on every table before one breaks bread, as the table resembles the altar.” (Orech Chayim 167.5) So it is that many Jewish families have the custom of salting their challah at the Shabbat table. And what if there’s no salt? Rabbi Yosef Chayim of Baghdad, writing in the 19th century, ruled that one can use sugar instead, which lends authority to those who have the custom to swap out salt for honey during the High Holy Day season as an omen for a sweet new year. Still, he writes, when a host gave him the option, he split the difference and dipped one side of the bread in sugar and the other in salt.
Read all of Menachot 20 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on January 31, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
