On Hanukkah there is a custom to eat latkes, levivot, fried potatoes, or in Israel, sufganiyot, fried jelly doughnuts. While this custom is mentioned in two songs from the Middle Ages (see Levinsky, 1956, vol. 5, pp. 279, 284) it is not mentioned in halakhic works until the twentieth century.
One modern writer who refers to this custom is Eliyahu Kitov (1978, vol. 1, p. 282) and he claims that the reason we eat these foods is because they are fried in oil, which is to remind us of the miracle of the menorah. Hayyim Simons (1995) notes that this explanation has no pre-modern source, and he claims that the eating of latkes is based on the custom of eating cheese on Hanukkah.
The Rama (Shulchan Arukh, Orah Chayyim, 670:2) quotes that there is a custom to eat cheese on Hanukkah. This custom is first quoted in the Middle Ages, by the Ran and Kal Bo (both 14th century?), who base it on a story that a woman named Judith gave cheese to a Greek general, which caused him to fall asleep and then she proceeded to decapitate him (see Mishnah Berurah 672:10). The source for this story is murky. Most likely it is from the book of Judith, part of the Apocrypha, and even if true, it is unrelated to the Maccabees (see R. Yaakov Emdem, Mor U-Ketzia). It seems that by the year 1000, the story was connected to Hanukkah (see Rashi on Shabbat 23a). My guess is that this occurred since Judith was a popular figure amongst the Christians and the Jews wanted to “reclaim” her, as Encyclopedia Judaica (1971, vol. 10, p. 459) writes that “Judith has attracted more writers, artists and composers than any other figure in the Apocrypha.” She was/ is so popular that there are menorot with an image of her holding the head of the Greek general, see picture in Sperber, 1995, p. 131 of a menorah from first the half of the 18th century from Germany. This story is also conflated with the very similar incident of Yael and Sisera, as in the book Judith, Judith gave the Greek general wine, which makes one drowsier than cheese, while Shoftim 4:19 records that Yael gave Sisera milk. Independent of this story, cheese was/ is a distinctive food in Northern Europe, and eating cheese again arises as an Ashkenazi custom by Shavuot, see the Rama on 494:2.
Simons suggests that the eating of cheese is the source of eating latkes since initially the cheese was eaten together with some dough that was fried, (blintzes? crêpes?). This connection is stated explicitly by Menachem ben Judah de Lonzano in the early 17th century. Even earlier there is another reference to both of these foods, as a manuscript from 1402 of the book of Judith records that she also fed the Greek general levivot. Furthermore, when the Kal Bo records the custom of eating cheese, he states that one is to eat a cooked dish with cheese, and Simons suggests that this reference to a cooked dish meant fried food that was filled with cheese.
At some point, potatoes replaced cheese but since potatoes only “arrived” in Eastern Europe around the 17th century, this change could have only occurred starting from the 17th century. Probably this change occurred since potatoes were cheaper and more available than cheese in the middle of the winter, so people started to fry potatoes, latkes, instead of or in addition to frying dough with cheese.
Over time the connection between the fried food and the cheese was lost, and we are left today with two separate customs one of eating cheese and one of eating fried foods. Furthermore, while the eating of the fried foods was initially auxiliary to the eating of cheese, today, to the best of my knowledge, the custom of eating cheese is neglected while the eating of latkes and sufganiyot is very popular on Hanukkah.
Bibliography:
Kitov, Eliyahu, 1978, The Book of Our Heritage, Jerusalem: Feldheim Publishers.
Levinsky, Yom Tov, 1956, Sefer ha-Moadim, Tel Aviv: Dvir.
Simons, Hayyim, 1995, Eating cheese and latkes on Hanukkah, Sinai, 115, pp. 57-68.
Sperber, Daniel, 1995 (vol. 5), Minhagei Yisrael: Sources and history, Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook.
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