Menachot 20: To Salt Or Not To Salt

The Gemara discusses salting the korban, the meal-offering that is brought to the altar.  There is leniency regarding the timing of salting based on Torah instruction.  The meal offering is meant to be salted before it is placed the altar.  Salting is not repeated, and so our last Mishna states that salting is not required as part of the offering.

The Gemara notes that the rabbis did not agree about salting the korban.  Through a baraita, Rabbi Yehuda quotes a Torah passage that requires all sacrifices be salted.  The source might be Bamidbar (18.19) or, as Rabbeinu Tam (Tosafot) suggests, the source is Vayikra (2:13) which says that salt should not be left out when bringing a sacrifice.  Rabbi Shimon says that similar language is found in Bamidbar (25:12) regarding priests. He says that the korban must be brought with priests and with salt.

Rashi attempts to this difference.  He says that Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Shimon have agree that the law that requires salt is found in all of the sources mentioned.  The Rambam states that their differences are significant - Rabbi Yehuda believes that only meal-offerings require salt, and Rabbi Shimon believes that salt is required on all sacrifices.

Steinsaltz notes that Rabbi Meir Simcha HaCohen of Dvinsk (in Meshech Chochma) offers a different explanation: Rabbi Yehuda would require salt when a meal offering is brought on a private altar, where Rabbi Shimon would say that priests and thus salt are not required when offering meat on a private altar.

It must be noted that salt would serve a secondary purpose: to enhance the flavour of a meal-offering.