Savory or sweet

Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26

“Yeast (leavening) or honey, you shall not burn as an offering …”

“With every offering you shall offer salt.”

The various commentaries offer explanations for these instructions. Rambam (“Guide for the Perplexed”) is cited, explaining that the pagans would add yeast and honey to their offerings. Hashem wanted Israel to do things differently. On the other hand, the reason given to add salt is to enhance the flavor. This appears to be contradictory.

The basic notion of a korban, offering, is hiskarvus, becoming close to Hashem. One really wants to place himself on the altar, but Hashem has instructed Israel to offer animals, flour, etc. to represent the human. This phenomenon of bringing the two sides close is paradoxical. Hashem is pure spirituality, totally metaphysical. The human is pure materiality, physical. How can the two become close? In reality, material human has a spiritual side. When a human approaches the mizbaiach, holy altar, he offers up his holy spiritual side, and he burns the material. The physical turns into metaphysical. And so, the human is able to draw close to Hashem.

Accordingly, when offering something physical and material, it makes sense to offer the very best material. This might be the reasoning behind the pagan ideal of offering yeast and honey; they wanted to raise the most material items to the spiritual realm. Yeast, or leaven, is the highest level of processed food. Not only is it cooked or baked, but prior to the cooking a process of leavening takes place. The raw material is processed again and again. Wheat is ground into flour. It is then kneaded into dough, then left to rise and leaven, and finally baked into a beautiful bread. Honey adds a new sweeter flavor to the food. Both are the most wonderful examples of a super-material food.

However, yeast is not a necessity. It is an addition to the basic material dough. One can live without it. The improved leavened product satisfies the additional desire for physical pleasure. The same is true of honey. In addition, leavening is added to change the product — from matzah to chametz. It is not there to add flavor to matzah. Even honey does not simply enhance the flavor. It adds a sweetener. This is something new that was not there in the original mixture.

The Torah says: When you wish to come close to Hashem by raising the physical to the metaphysical, the point is to refine the material. It is not to add even more material. Pagans tended to view their idols as a duality; physical, material beings like themselves, while at the same time, some kind of spiritual power. By adding more material, they felt that they were improving the bond through the offering.

By contrast, salt is not food, nor an agent to change the physical makeup of the food, for the most part. Salt brings forth the flavor that already exists in the food. The salt does not become a separate ingredient in the mixture. Rather, it becomes a part of the main ingredient. It turns into the item being salted. This enhances the item inherently. Even in the ketoress incense, a tiny amount of salt was added to bring out the best in the rest. Salt can even enhance the scent. It is not an added ingredient in a mixture. It is there to enhance the existing ingredients.

This can certainly improve spiritual closeness. It can lead to enhanced intimacy with Hashem. The purpose of salting the korban is to bring forth the strengths inherent within humans. One wishes to show how he can harness his entirety, using all his strengths. These include strengths within the physical as well as spiritual, and to refine and spiritualize the physical strengths. He should be looking to enhance those existing strengths by “salting” them, just a little. This will serve to bring forth the deeply hidden qualities within his body and soul. PJC

Rabbi Shimon Silver is the spiritual leader of Young Israel of Greater Pittsburgh. This column is a service of the Vaad Harabonim of Greater Pittsburgh.