SALT FOR THE BREAD BLESSING

QUESTION:

Is it required to have salt on the table when the blessing over bread is made, and is it required, also, that the bread be dipped into the salt? (Asked by L.S.F.)

ANSWER:

FROM THE VERY beginning, salt was a very important part of the ritual. The sacrifices in the Temple (and before that in the Tabernacle in the Wilderness) could not be offered without salt. Leviticus 2:13 reads, “And every meal-offering of thine shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meal-offering; with all thy offerings shalt thou offer salt.” Numbers 18:19, speaking of offerings, reads in a general way, “It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee.” Thus salt was considered to be a symbol of God’s covenant with Israel in general.

From the idea that the salt with the sacrifices was a symbol of the covenant with God, there was a logical transition to believe that also at the blessing over bread, as with sacrifices on the altar, salt should be present as a symbol of covenant with God. Thus the Talmud, speaking of the one who breaks bread (i.e., the one who makes the blessing of the bread for the company, breaking off a piece of the loaf for the blessing) says as follows,’ ‘The one who breaks bread is not permitted to break the bread until they bring him salt or condiment [lifton]” (Berachos 48a).

However, two facts are to be noticed about this statement. First, the condiment need not necessarily be salt—it could be any other condiment that the bread could be dipped in; and secondly, the rabbi, Rava Bar Samuel, who is the author of the statement, ate a meal at the house of the Exilarch and made the blessing over the bread without any salt. When asked whether he had changed his mind as to his former requirement that there should always be salt at the blessing over the bread, he said that it was not necessary here to delay the blessing (i.e., to wait for salt). This Rashi explains by saying that it was good bread and did not require any condiment. In fact, the Tosfos to the passage says, “We are not accustomed to bring on our table either salt or other condiment because our bread is of high quality.”

The same ambiguity as to requiring salt is reflected in the law as given in the Shulchan Aruch. In Orach Chayim 167:5, Joseph Caro first states the law as given in the Talmud, namely, that salt or other condiment must be brought so that the one who gives the blessing can dip the bread into it. But then Joseph Caro continues by saying that if it is pure bread, already seasoned “as our bread is,” it is not necessary to wait for salt to be brought. However, Isserles says as follows, “At all events, it is a mitzvah to have salt on the table before the blessing is made, because our table is like the altar and our food is like a sacrifice, and it is said ‘and all thy sacrifices thou shalt bring salt.’ ”

To sum up, it is not an absolute requirement to dip the bread in salt, especially if the bread does not require the condiment. However, because of the association with the sacrifices on the altar, which always did require salt, Isserles states it is proper to have the salt. It is clear that those who omit using the salt, if their bread is of good quality and well seasoned, do not actually violate any law.