כל המנחה אשר תקריבו לה' לא תעשה חמץ כי כל שאר וכל דבש לא תקטירו ממנו אשה לה'
“All meal offerings brought near before Hashem should not be prepared leavened for you shall not cause to go up in smoke from any leavening or any honey as a fire-offering to Hashem.” (Vayikra 2:11)
The lesson of this pasuk is that the Mincha offering must be pure flour — no foreign ingredients can be added to enhance the basic requirement of the korban.
Nevertheless, two pasukim later, the pasuk says that there needs to be an additive that accompanies the offering: וכל קרבן מנחתך במלח תמלח - “You shall salt your every meal offering with salt...” (2:13). Not only CAN salt be added, it MUST be added.
Rav Mordechai Gifter explains the difference between the leavening agent and the sweetening agent on the one hand — that are forbidden — and salt, that is required. Rav Gifter explains that extraneous elements are forbidden to be used in korbonos. The recipe for a korban cannot be improved upon — neither by the use of a leavening agent to make it rise nor by the use of a sweetening agent to improve its taste. Salt is different, however, because salt brings out the taste which pre-exists in the flour offering. Salt enhances the natural taste that already exists in the food.
Some people salt watermelon. They claim that it “brings out the sweetness.” When we salt our food, we are not adding an extraneous taste; we are enhancing the pre-existing taste.
Rav Gifter says that this is the nature of spirituality. In seeking spirituality, a person should not introduce extraneous additives. A person should not try to be someone that he is not or act in a way that does not really represent his real self. In developing one’s spirituality, a person needs to work on bringing the essence of his own real spiritual personality to the fore.
When a person brings korbonos as a form of avodas Hashem, he is trying to develop his spiritual personality by becoming a eved Hashem [servant of G-d]. When engaged in a quest for spirituality, a person should not try to take on foreign practices that do not represent his real soul. The goal should always be to try and bring out the best of your own self within the context of who you really are.
Rav Naftali Amsterdam was a talmid of Rav Yisroel Salanter. He once came to his Rebbe and said, “Rebbi, if I had the head of the Shagas Aryeh and if I had the soul of the author of the Yesod v’Shoresh haAvodah and if I had your personality traits (midos) — then I could truly be a eved Hashem.” Rav Yisroel responded to him, “Naftali — with your head and with your heart and with your personality traits you can be Naftali Amsterdam. That is all you have to be. You do not need to be the Shagas Aryeh or Reb Yisroel Salanter or anybody else.”
This is the idea of “Salt it with salt”: One must be who he is. Adding sweeteners or leavening agents changes the nature of a substance. “That’s not you!” But salt, brings out the true flavor. This is what we are supposed to strive for in our avodas Hashem. (R’ Frand)
