Q: I’ve noticed that at any Shabbat table I go to, they dip their Challah into salt. Why are they doing this? Are they trying to imply the bread is missing taste?

 

A: On a simple halachic reason the reason why we dip bread into salt is because bread used to be made out of only flour and water. We make a special blessing over bread so to give that bread (and by extension the blessing) more prominence we add salt to give it more taste. But that reason would no longer apply nowadays when most of our breads already have salt in them.

 

The reason why we still do it is because in the Temple they would always add salt to all sacrifices which was offered on the altar. Our homes are a mini-Temple and our table is like the altar. So we add salt to our bread.

 

The message we are conveying is that even something like eating is supposed to be a meaningful, deep and G-dly experience.

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