Every Jewish Holiday has its own traditional food. The Passover smells like "gefilte fish" and matzo balls, Rosh a Shana (Jewish New Year) brings the "apple and honey" taste, and no Hanukkah table is complete without potato pancakes ("latkes") and dairy products. Even though most people are aware of those traditional foods, they don't always know the origin and symbolism of those customs.

Eating foods fried or baked in a lot of oil, especially "latkes", as they are called by Ashkenazi Jews, is definitely not a healthy tradition. But I am ready to make this small sacrifice during my Hanukkah meal, when I remember that we celebrate the "miracle of oil". The first Hanukkah ("dedication" in Hebrew) was celebrated in 2nd century BCE, when brothers Maccabee led the successful revolt against Syrians. After the victory, Jews had to re-dedicate to God the Temple that was desecrated by Syrians. The dedication ritual required a consecrated oil to be used for lighting. The small oil container that was found was enough to last for a day only. Miraculously, the oil was burning for eight days which gave Judeans time to prepare new oil.

Obviously, latkes are not the only dish that could be eaten to celebrate the significance of oil during Hanukkah. Anything else that could be deep-fried in oil, or baked, will go. My personal favorites (requiring hours in gym afterwards) are so-called "sufganiot" or "ponchikes" in Yiddish. Those are essentially donuts filled with jam. For some strange reason, the Israeli "sufganiot" taste much better than the ones in North America. That makes the temptation impossible to resist.

Eating dairy foods on Hanukkah is less known custom, which should remind us about the Jewish heroine Judith who saved her village from death and destruction. This story is known to most of us if not from Torah or Bible, then from many classical paintings, depicting Judith with the head of Syrian general Holofernes. Holofernes' troupes surrounded one of the Judean villages and cut the water supply. The villagers were prepared to die. However, Judith decided to save her hometown. She went to the enemy's camps and pretended to surrender. As the story goes, Judith went to Holofernes' tent, and brought him cheese and wine. After Holofernes fell asleep, Judith beheaded him with his own sword and fled from the camp, bringing his head in the basket to the Judean camp. Of course, when Syrian soldiers lost their general, they were unable to fight. The Jews, however, were encouraged by the death of their enemy, launched an attack and saved the village.

Based on the Jewish tradition, Judith is considered to be an aunt of Judah the Maccabee, the lead of Maccabee revolt, thus the association to Hanukkah. The current tradition to eat dairy foods on Hanukkah, especially cheese, is to remind us of Judith and her role in saving her people.

Is it permissible to eat anything else on Hanukkah? The answer is definite "yes". Again, as with many other Jewish holidays, any kosher food that brings joy and makes people thankful for having it on the table, should remind about the times when their ancestors were fighting for their life and future. Therefore enjoy your Hanukkah meal and have happy holidays!

Learn more about this author, Elena Yampolsky.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about A look at the symbolism of Hanukkah foods?
We want to hear your view. Write now!