Traité Menachot

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : a covenant stated with regard to salt, ensuring that the offerings should always be salted; this is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda. 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 Pinehas: “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. The baraita demonstrates that the rite of salting is an indispensable requirement, despite the fact that the rite is not repeated in the verses.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : Rav Yosef said: Rav, who holds that the only sacrificial rites that are indispensable are the ones repeated in the verses, holds in accordance with the tanna of our mishna, who says: If one did not add salt, the meal offering is still fit. According to this tanna, adding salt is not indispensable. Abaye said to him: If that is so and you understand the mishna to be referring to a case where no salt is added at all, then you should also understand the mishna’s statement: If one did not pour the oil, as referring to a case where he did not pour oil at all. This cannot be, as the rite of pouring oil is repeated in the verses and is clearly indispensable. Rather, the mishna must be referring to a case where a priest did not pour oil onto the meal offering, but a non-priest did pour the oil. Here too, the tanna of the mishna means only that a priest did not add salt, but a non-priest did add salt. If no salt is added, even this tanna holds that the meal offering is unfit.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : Rav Yosef said to Abaye: But could it enter your mind that a non-priest would approach the altar to salt the handful of the meal offering? A non-priest may not enter the area near the altar. Since it is not conceivable that this would take place, it must be that when ruling that the meal offering is fit, the tanna of the mishna is referring to a case where the salt was never added.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : And if you wish, say instead that Rav holds that since with regard to the application of salt, the term “covenant” is written about it, it is considered as though it were repeated in another verse, as the term “covenant” teaches that it is an indispensable rite.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : With regard to the question that was raised to challenge the statement of Rav, the Gemara asks: And is it correct that the application of salt is not repeated in the verse? But isn’t it written: “And every meal offering of yours you shall season with salt” (Leviticus 2:13)? The Gemara answers: That verse does not function as a repetition, since it is necessary for that which is taught in a baraita: Had the verse stated only: And every offering you shall season with salt, I would derive that this applies to even the wood and the blood, which are also termed: An offering.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : To counter this, the verse states: “And every meal offering of yours,” to teach that just as the meal offering is unique in that other items come as a requirement for it, as the wood is required for the burning of the handful of the meal offering, so too any item that is unique in that other items come as a requirement for it requires the application of salt. By contrast, the wood and the blood do not require salting, as the wood itself requires no wood, and the blood is presented on the altar and does not require wood.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : The baraita continues: If that logic is employed, one could say: Just as the handful of the meal offering that is burned is unique in that it permits the remainder of the meal offering to be eaten by the priests, and it requires salting, so too, any item that is unique in that it permits other items requires the application of salt. Accordingly, I will include blood in the obligation to be salted, as its presentation permits the offering to be sacrificed and eaten. To counter this, the continuation of the verse states: “Neither shall you suffer the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your meal offering,” demonstrating that it cannot be lacking from the meal offering, but not from your blood.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : The baraita continues: 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 [minḥa] does not require salting.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : And I have derived only that the handful of a meal offering requires salting. From where is it derived to include the frankincense, which is also burned on the altar, in the requirement to be salted? I include the frankincense due to the fact that it comes along with the handful in one vessel and is therefore included in the expression “offering.”

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : From where is it derived to include in the requirement to be salted the frankincense that comes by itself as a separate offering? One may accept the obligation to bring an offering of frankincense to be burned on the altar. From where is it derived that this frankincense requires salting? Moreover, from where is it derived to include in the requirement to be salted the frankincense that comes in bowls together with the shewbread, and the incense?

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : Moreover, from where is it derived in the requirement of salting in the case of the meal offerings from which a handful is not removed, i.e., the meal offering of priests, and the meal offering of the anointed priest that is brought every day by the High Priest, and the meal offering that accompanies the libations brought with burnt offerings and peace offerings? From where is it derived in the requirement of salting with regard to the sacrificial portions of the sin offering consumed on the altar, and the sacrificial portions of the guilt offering, and the sacrificial portions of the offerings of the most sacred order, and the sacrificial portions of the offerings of lesser sanctity, and the limbs of the burnt offering, and the bird burnt offering? From where is it derived that all these require salting?

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : The baraita continues: Therefore, the verse states: “You shall sacrifice salt with all your offerings” (Leviticus 2:13), demonstrating that everything burned on the altar requires salting. From this baraita, it is apparent that the mitzva to apply salt is necessary in order to teach about the circumstances where salt is added, and therefore it cannot be used as an instance where the mitzva is repeated in order to teach that the rite is indispensable.