Salting Sacrifices in the Temple
Menachos 21a-b
Salt was an integral part of each and every sacrifice, as the Torah clearly states in Vayikra (2:13), that the covenant of salt should never be left out when bringing sacrifices.
According to the baraita there were three places where the salt was applied in the Temple:
- In the “salt office” in the Temple where salt was applied to the hides of the sacrifices that were given to the kohanim as their share in the sacrifice (see Vayikra 7:8)
- On the ramp leading up to the altar where the parts of the offering that were to be sacrificed were prepared
- On the top of the altar itself, where various offerings were salted, including a variety of different types of meal-offerings – the kometz and levonah (the fistful of flour prepared by the kohen for sacrifice together with the frankincense), the meal-offering of the kohen and of the kohen gadol, as well as others.
Regarding the “salt office” in the Temple, Tosafos point to a Mishnah in Maseches Middos (5:3) where it appears that the “salt office” was where the salt for the sacrifices were stored, and the hides from the sacrifices were treated with salt in a different office nearby that was called lishkat ha-parva (the “hide office”). Tosafos suggest that the baraisa in our Gemara wrote in shorthand, and what it means is that the “salt office” was where the salt was stored for use in salting the hides in the nearby lishkat ha-parva. An alternative approach raised is that the “salt office” in our Gemara really refers to the lishkat ha-parva, where the actual salting was done – similar to the ramp and the altar where the salt was actually applied. The office mentioned in Maseches Middos refers to a storage office that is not mentioned in our Gemara, whose sole focus is on where the salting took place.
In the diagram below, we see the three salting places:
- Number 1 – the altar (mizbe’ach)
- Number 2 – the ramp (kevesh)
- Number 3 – the “salt office” (lishkat ha-melach)
- Adjoining the salt office, we find the lishkat ha-parva.
The Gemara points out that this ruling regarding salt and the korban minḥa is not agreed upon by all. A baraisa is quoted where we find that Rabbi Yehuda understands a passage in the Torah to require that all sacrifices be brought with salt (according to the reading in our Gemara, the passage in question is from Sefer Bamidbar 18:19. Rabbeinu Tam in Tosafos argues that that passage does not relate to sacrifices, and suggests an alternative reading, which has Rabbi Yehuda’s source as Vayikra 2:13, where it clearly states that the covenant of salt should never be left out when bringing sacrifices). The baraisa also offers the opinion of Rabbi Shimon who learns this rule from the parallel covenantal language found in Bamidbar 18:19 regarding salt and in Bamidbar 25:12 regarding kohanim. Rabbi Shimon argues that just as sacrifices cannot be brought without kohanim, similarly they cannot be brought without salt.
Rashi understands that there is no real difference between Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Shimon; they simply derive the same law requiring salt on all sacrifices from different biblical passages. The Kesef Mishna argues that according to the Rambam there are differences between them. He suggests that according to Rabbi Yehuda only meal offerings require salt, while Rabbi Shimon rules that this law applies to all sacrifices. In his Meshech Chokhmah, Rabbi Meir Simḥah HaCohen of Dvinsk suggests that they differ in a case where a meal offering is brought on a bama – a private altar – at a time that it was permissible to do so. In such a case Rabbi Yehuda would still require salt; Rabbi Shimon would argue that since we do not need kohanim to perform the service on a private altar, we do not need salt, either.
