Why do we dip bread into salt before eating it?

All of the sacrifices were salted before they were offered on the altar of the Holy Temple. The table at which we eat is likened to an altar and we are reminded of this through dipping our bread in salt. Salt also reminds us that the poor should be guests at our table; Lot's wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt, repre-sented the epitome of Sodom's wickedness and inhospitality.