Chanukah 5784: Maimonian Doughnuts and My Current Understanding of Minhag

I thought sufganiot were not a real minhag until a surprising source made me reconsider. I explain my former reasoning in the free part of this article and my current understanding behind the paywall.

The Torah Content for Chanukah has been sponsored by Malky M. with gratitude for introducing her to a new way of thinking and learning.

If you are not a paid subscriber, click here to listen to the audio of the free version of this article and click here for a printer-friendly copy of the free version of this article.

For a printer-friendly version of this PAID subscription article, scroll to the very end.

Artwork: This art - and this entire article! - was inspired by my friend, Ann, who served a Sephardic Chanukah delicacy called “Birmuelos.” I decided to use Adobe Firefly 2.0 to make a depiction of Chanukah Birmuelos modeled after Grove of the Burnwillows, by Cliff Childs. I call this piece: Grove of the Birmuelos.

Chanukah 5784: Maimonian Doughnuts and My Current Understanding of Minhag

When my high school students inquire about any aspect of Jewish practice, I frequently preface my reply by asking them what they think is the correct classification of the practice in question. I give them four choices: de’Oraisa (Torah law), de’Rabbanan (Rabbinic law), minhag (custom), or what I call “bagels & lox” – that is, Jewish cultural practices which, beloved as they may be, have nothing to do with the halachic system.

For years I thought that the custom of eating doughnuts, latkes, and other fried foods on Chanukah fell squarely into the category of “bagels & lox.” I was well aware of the conventional explanation that oily foods commemorate the Miracle of the Oil, but I didn’t find this reason sufficient. I assumed that in order for something to be a genuine minhag, it must have a basis in halacha. My assumption was rooted in the view of R’ Joseph B. Soloveitchik (a.k.a. the Rav), which was summarized by R’ Schachter (Nefesh ha’Rav, p.24 note 36) as follows:

[The Rav] took an oppositional stance towards ritual and ceremony. Accordingly, he held that the idea of minhagim was not merely “ritual,” but rather … all of them must have some kiyum (fulfillment) of some halacha or [be rooted in] some concern for a view in the Gemara or the Rishonim; any custom which doesn’t meet these criteria is but a mere ritual or ceremony, and not a minhag.

I reasoned that “reminding us about the miracle of the oil” wasn’t enough of a halachic kiyum to endow a mundane entity (fried food) or a mundane activity (eating fried food) with the status of a legitimate minhag. It would be one thing if there were an obligation of seudah (a festive meal) on Chanukah, but it is difficult to argue that such an obligation exists, as the Tur (OC 670:2) writes: “excessive and lavish meals are optional (i.e. not obligatory), for [the days of Chanukah] were only established for praise and thanks – not for mishteh v’simchah (feasting and celebration).” The actual laws of Chanukah – kindling the ner Chanukah, saying Hallel, reciting Al ha’Nissim in our tefilos and birkas ha’mazon – simply do not provide an ample halachic basis for a minhag of eating specific foods. Based on this reasoning, I regarded Chanukah doughnuts as nothing more than a holiday edition of “bagels & lox.”

But alas, as the sar ha’mashkim (chief cupbearer) says in this week’s parashah, “es chato’ai ani mazkir ha’yom – my errors I mention today” (Bereishis 41:9). I have come to realize that I was mistaken.

The source that prompted me to rethink this issue is none other than R’ Maimon ben Yosef, father of the Rambam, who testifies to the antiquity of the Chanukah doughnut minhag. (See? The title of this article is not a typo: they’re Maimonian – not Maimonidean.) The following excerpt is from the Chanukah section of R’ Maimon’s compendium on tefilah (in Sarid u’Palit, Vol. 1, translated from the Arabic manuscript into Hebrew by R’ David ha’Saboni):

One must not deride any minhag (custom), even a minhag kal (trivial custom). Everyone who has the means is obligated to make a festive and joyous meal and food to publicize the miracle that Hashem did with us in those days. The widespread minhag is to make sufganin – “al-sfenj” in Arabic, or “iskritin” in Aramaic – which are honey-fried wafers; this is a minhag of the Ancients, since they are fried in oil as a way to recall His blessing.

R’ Maimon is talking directly to people like me – to those who are inclined to downplay or dismiss what appear to be “trivial customs.” It is interesting to note that unlike the popular explanation, which links oil-fried food to the fact that the miracle of the Menorah involved oil, R’ Maimon characterizes such food as “a way to recall His blessing.” Perhaps this is because oil is associated with Hashem’s blessings, as in: “Like the goodly oil upon the head running down upon the beard … so the dew of Hermon descends upon the mountains of Tzion, for there Hashem has commanded the blessing” (Tehilim 133:2-3), and many other pesukim in Tanach.

Can something like al-sfenj, which no halachic legs to stand on, be reconciled with the Rav’s definition of minhag, or is there another concept of minhag we ought to consider? With this question in mind, I revisited an essay written by Rav Pesach, my Gemara rebbi, which outlines some ideas about the halachic nature of minhagim. Since this essay has not been published publicly in a final draft form, and since my thoughts on this subject are “in the works,” I’ve decided to keep the rest of this article behind a paywall.