The foundational role of salt in the Torah is established in Vayikra 2:13, which commands that every meal offering be salted, forbids allowing the "salt of your covenant with God" to be absent from any offering, and concludes with the sweeping directive to bring salt on every sacrifice.
This covenantal language extends beyond the sacrificial laws: Bamidbar 18:19 describes the priestly gifts as a "covenant of salt forever before God," and Divrei HaYamim II 13:5 applies the same phrase to the perpetual Davidic kingdom — prompting the Ramban (Vayikra 2:13) to explain that salt in the sacrifices becomes the archetype for all covenants in the Torah, since it endures as salt in the offerings endures, while Ibn Ezra's alternative reading — deriving "covenant" from a root meaning desolation — is rejected by the Ramban as groundless.
The meforshim draw out the deeper symbolism of salt's dual nature: Rashi (Vayikra 2:13) teaches that a covenant with salt was struck from the six days of creation, when the lower waters were promised representation at the altar through salt and the water libation on Sukkot; רש"ר הירש, ויקרא ב יג develops this further, arguing that salt's preservative power — its ability to prevent decay and resist external change — makes it the perfect emblem of a covenant, which by definition stands apart from circumstance and endures without alteration; and the Kli Yakar (Vayikra 2:13) adds a kabbalistic dimension, noting that salt contains within itself both fire and water, the opposites of din and rachamim, so that salting the offering enacts a coronation of God over all apparent contradictions in creation.
The Gemara in Menachot 20b and Menachot 21a works out precisely which sacrificial components require salting, deriving from the phrase "every meal offering of yours" that only items for which other items are prerequisites — susceptible to ritual impurity, brought on the altar fire, and offered on the outer altar — are subject to the obligation, thereby excluding wood, blood, wine, and incense.
The Tur HaArokh (Vayikra 2:13) synthesizes Rashi and the Ramban and adds an ecological observation: just as salt simultaneously preserves and sterilizes — sustaining life while preventing new growth where it is scattered — so the covenant of salt in the offerings signals that the world is upheld when the covenant is kept and destroyed when it is broken.
The Haamek Davar (Bamidbar 18:19) reads the "covenant of salt" governing the priesthood as a warning about measure: just as salt enhances food in the right quantity but ruins it in excess, so priestly holiness is a great merit when exercised properly and a destruction of the soul when abused.
The table at which bread is broken is identified with the altar: the Shulchan Arukh (Orach Chayim 167:5) records the practice — cited in the name of Shibolei HaLeket — of placing salt on the table before breaking bread because the table resembles the altar and eating resembles a sacrifice, as the verse says "on every offering you shall bring salt," and adds that salt protects against punishment; the Mishnah Berurah (167:33) notes that the mekubalim further prescribe dipping the slice of bread in salt three times.
Kabbalistic practice elaborates the three-fold dipping: Rav Mordechai Eliyahu (Shut HaRav HaRashi 15:64) cites the Ben Ish Chai to the effect that bread and salt share equal numerical values and that the three immersions in salt correspond to sweetening the three gevurot through the three chassadim encoded in the Name, while Rav Mordechai Eliyahu (Maamar Mordechai, Chelek 1 20:43) rules that if no salt is present at the time of Hamotzi one should not wait but should dip the remaining bread upon its arrival, and Rav Mordechai Eliyahu (Maamar Mordechai, Chelek 1 20:44) rules that salt should remain on the table from the start of the meal through Birkat HaMazon.
Salt also plays a decisive halachic role in the preparation of meat for consumption: the Shulchan Arukh (Yoreh De'ah 69:1) sets out the law that meat must be washed before salting, salted thoroughly to draw out the blood, and drained before salting lest the water dissolve the salt and prevent it from doing its work — and Tzitz Eliezer (9:35) rules that salt serves the essential function of removing blood from meat, that meat does not exit the status of its blood except through thorough salting, and that the salt required is actual salt as derived from the verse on the law of the olah.
Beyond the Temple and the table, salt appears in the Tanach as an instrument of utter destruction: Shoftim 9:45 records that Abimelech, after razing the city of Shechem, sowed it with salt — reflecting the understanding, developed by רש"ר הירש, ויקרא as well, that salted ground yields nothing and grows nothing, the polar opposite of salt's life-sustaining covenantal role.
The Zohar and its commentary the Sulam (Zohar, Vayechi 666) explain that salt is precious precisely because it refines and sweetens bitterness, representing the middle line that unifies right and left and tempers the harsh judgments of the left side — and Likkutei Torah (Vayikra 4:1) observes that salt itself is tasteless yet imparts taste to everything it seasons, drawing the analogy that the hidden becomes the source of all revealed flavor.
The Targum Jonathan reflects the same covenantal permanence: Targum Jonathan (Bamidbar 18:19) renders the verse by comparing the eternal priestly covenant to salt that perfumes and seasons the flesh of offerings before God, emphasizing that just as salt's action on the sacrifice is unceasing, so the covenant is unceasing.
