This week's parsha presents us with a description of the offering of sacrifices on the altar.Among the various laws mentioned as part of the sacrificial order is the prohibition of adding honey or any manner of leaven to the sacrifice.Rather, we must put salt on all of our sacrifices.Rambam explains that it was the practice of idolaters to add honey and leaven to their sacrifices, and, therefore, we are enjoined from doing so to our sacrifices.The requirement of putting salt on sacrifices is explained by Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra as a sign of respect to God.Our offering is more complete with salt added.to it, just as our food is considered more tasty when salt is added.This requirement finds an echo in our practice of placing salt on the table when we eat, since our table is likened to an altar.There is, seemingly, no connection between the prohibition of adding honey or leaven to the sacrifice and the requirement to add salt, except for the fact that they constitute rules for what can or cannot be added to our sacrifices.

Rabbi Mordechai Gifter, in his Pirkei Torah, explains these mitzvos in a way that connects them through a common theme.Honey, he says, is an additive, a sweetener unrelated to the food it is added to, while leaven transforms the foodstuff it is added to.In both cases, the food being treated is changed through the addition of an outside factor.Salt, on the other hand, preserves and brings out the natural flavor of the food.Symbolically, then, these mitzvos are teaching us that our service of God must be a natural expression of our inner connection with Him, and not an artificial exercise.Moreover, our service of God should enable us to develop our inner potential, just as salt brings out the inner flavor of the food it seasons. Although we unfortunately are not able, at this time, to offer sacrifices in the Temple, the prayers we offer each day are, the rabbis tell us, patterned after the daily sacrifices in the Temple.and, so, the character of divine service in the Temple carries a message for us, as well.

To carry Rabbi Gifter's idea further, we can add that prayer should not be approached as an isolated part of our day, unrelated to what precedes or follows it.Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi, in his masterpiece the Kuzari, describes the day of the chasid, the pious man.The focal point of his day is the time that he prays, establishing contact with God.After finishing his morning prayers, he looks forward to the next opportunity he will have to communicate with God.His whole day, then, is centered around that connection.Prayer is not a compartmentalized part of his life, but its guidepoint and focal center.His thoughts are constantly focused on God, so that when he prays it is not a break from the rest of his day but part of a natural flow.Perhaps the ultimate example of this approach is King David, who wrote "I am prayer.." David's connection with God was so strong that he described himself as a personification of prayer.Rabbi Eliezer Waldman of Kiryat Arba has pointed out that it is in this sense that the Rabbis referred to prayer as sicha - a conversation.Just as a conversation is a natural part of a person's life, so, too, should prayer be.Our entire day should, ideally, be permeated with a sense of God's presence, so that the time that we actually engage in prayer is seen as an intensification and reinforcement of an ongoing relationship.This is the sense of the verse written on many synagogue prayer stands,-"I have placed God before me constantly." Rabbi Moshe Isserles begins his glosses to the section of Shulchan Aruch that deals with the laws of everyday life-Orach Chaim-with a quotation of this verse, and the explanation of it given by the Rambam in his Guide to the Perplexed.The Rambam relates this verse not to prayer but to man's daily activity. A person does not act in the presence of the king, he writes, in the same manner that he acts in front of ordinary people.An awareness of God's presence, he continues, must permeate our lives and guide our actions.By following this directive of the Rambam, we will be able to join with King David in his declaration, "I am prayer."