What is the memorial portion (azkarah) in Leviticus?
The memorial portion is the single handful of the grain offering that the priest burns on the altar — a token that stands for the whole gift and calls God to take note of it, while the rest of the offering becomes the priests' food.
The memorial portion is the handful of the grain offering that actually goes up in smoke — the rest of the offering doesn't burn at all, it becomes food for the priests.
The ritual itself is a single gesture. The priest reaches into the offering and takes a qomets (קֹמֶץ, H7062) — a fistful — of flour and oil "together with all its frankincense," and burns that handful on the altar:
And he shall take from it his handful of its fine flour and of its oil, with all its frankincense, and the priest shall turn its memorial portion into smoke on the altar, a fire offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. — Leviticus 2:2 (MT)
That smoking handful is called the azkarah (אַזְכָּרָה, H234), built from the Hebrew root for "remember" (זכר). It's a strikingly rare, technical word — it appears in exactly seven verses in the entire Bible (Leviticus 2:2, 2:9, 2:16, 5:12, 6:15, 24:7, and Numbers 5:26). It isn't a payment or a ransom. It's the part that represents the whole — a token that calls God to take note of the entire gift even though only a fraction of it actually touches the fire.
The Psalms make that connection between the grain offering and being "remembered" explicit. Praying for the king before battle, Israel asks that God "remember all your grain offerings, and regard with favor your burnt offering" (Psalm 20:3-4) — using the very same Hebrew root as azkarah in the same breath as the grain offering itself. The offering is brought, in other words, so that God will call it — and its bringer — to mind.
And the memorial clause ends with the identical refrain that closes every grade of the burnt offering next door: "a fire offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD" (Leviticus 2:2, 2:9). The bloodless handful of flour is welcomed with the exact same formula as the blood of the bull — one acceptance, two very different kinds of gift.
The word's afterlife is worth a glance too. The Greek Old Testament usually renders azkarah as mnemosynon, "memorial" — and in the book of Acts, when an angel tells the God-fearing Roman Cornelius that his prayers and gifts to the poor "have gone up as a memorial before God" (Acts 10:4), it's that same Greek word, carrying the same picture of something rising toward heaven to be remembered. It's a single-verse echo worth noticing, not a claim that Cornelius was performing a grain offering.
The full study on the grain offering traces the azkarah through all seven of its occurrences, including its striking reappearance over the Bread of the Presence in the tabernacle.
What is the grain offering (minchah) in the Bible?
The grain offering is the one sacrifice in Leviticus with no animal and no blood — fine flour, oil, and frankincense brought as a tribute-gift to God, of which a handful is burned and the rest becomes food for the priests.
What is the salt of the covenant in Leviticus 2:13?
The salt of the covenant is a rare Hebrew phrase — salt required on every offering as a sign of a bond that never lapses, the same word-pair used elsewhere to guarantee the priesthood's rights and the permanence of David's throne.
Why did the grain offering have no blood?
The grain offering is the principal bloodless offering in Leviticus by design — its whole matter is flour, oil, and frankincense from the ground rather than an animal, a tribute-gift standing beside the blood offerings, not beneath them.
Why was leaven forbidden in offerings to God?
Leviticus never states the reason directly — it simply bans leaven and honey from being burned on the altar-fire, though the natural reading many draw is that the agent of fermentation and spread had no place in the smoke that rose to God.