Positive Mitzvah Sixty-Two Bring Salt With Every Offering
Requires Beit HaMikdash
VaYikra 2:13 You shall salt all your
mincha-offerings with salt and you shall not omit salt, the covenant of your
G-d from [being placed] upon your mincha-offerings. You shall bring salt
on every one of your offerings.
We are commanded to offer salt with every offering.
According to RaMBaM, the laws concerning sacrifices were ordained as a
concession to the universal custom of bringing offerings to various deities, a
check against the religious practices of the idolaters,
"The idolaters did not offer any other bread but
leavened, and chose sweet things for thei 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 hone, and commanded us to have salt in every offering"
(Moreh Nevuchim 3, 46).
In the Mishneh Torah, however, RaMBaM repudiates the
rationalistic interpretation of the Mitzvot that deal with the offerings.
He refers to them as chukkim
(statutes), whose purport must remain incomprehensible to the human mind.
(Mishneh Torah, Avodah, Hilchot Meilah 8, 8).
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