כי כל שאור וכל דבש לא תקטירו, “for you must not let go up in smoke anything leavened or any honey.” The reason was that G–d had said that every offering had to be accompanied with a certain amount of salt (Leviticus 2,13) and the two ingredients mentioned here are not compatible with salt.

ולא תשבית מלח, “and you must not omit salt;” the reason salt must not be omitted is that it is something that endures, and one of the most important symbolic features of animal sacrifice is to remind the Jewish people as well as individuals of the permanence of G–d’s covenant with us, and that it is not He who has to worry about being transient but we mortals. Seeing that He is not in need of food or drink, this legislation is clearly meant for the benefit of the Jewish people. When a person has sinned, and offered a sacrifice to further his atonement, knowing that after that he will be free of sin, he will be careful not to commit a careless act which resulted in his becoming obligated to cleanse himself from sin. If, on the other hand, he fails to take steps to obtain atonement, he will undoubtedly continue to commit sins as our sages have said in the Talmud tractate Kidushin, folio 20: “once a person has committed a sin-and has not repented and taken steps to rehabilitate himself,-the sin will no longer appear to him as having been a trespass against G–d, but he will treat it as if it had not even been a sin.” They explain this by comparing it to someone who has found a stain on his outer garment. Unless he takes steps to remove it, it will soon become something that he gets used to and before long his whole garment will become soiled. Concerning this subject, Solomon, in Kohelet, 9,8 says: בכל עת יהיו בגדיך לבנים, “be sure that your garments are white at all times;” our sages in the Talmud, tractate Makkot folio 2,add: “do not let them become stained by sin.” The Torah added numerous commandments, which the average person would perform even if the Torah had not specifically commanded him to do so. The reason is that it wished to give us additional opportunities to acquire spiritual merits.