There are a number of foods that are customary to eat on Chanukah (Hanukkah). Below are the history and explanations of two such traditions, dairy foods and waffles.
Eating Cheese and Dairy on Chanukah
- There is a custom that one should eat cheese on Chanukah, because part of the miracle was effected through Yehudit (Judith) who fed the enemy general cheese, thereby putting him to sleep and killing him.[1] Until now, we have seen that there is a custom to eat cheese as a direct memorial to what Yehudit accomplished. Some add that the memorial is not specifically eating cheese, but rather falling asleep as a result of eating cheese.
- All of the above is assuming that the aforementioned episode was contemporaneous to the decrees preceding the Chanukah miracle. However, Ben Ish Chai[2] disagrees and says that this story was not connected to the Chanukah miracle. Rather, he offers a different reason for the tradition to eat dairy: namely, that Antiochus outlawed Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh (sanctifying the first of each Jewish month)[3], and circumcision. The first letter of חודש (chodesh), the second letter of שבת (Shabbat) and the third letter of מילה (milah – circumcision) combine to spell חלב (chalav – milk).
- Bnei Yissaschar (Maamar 3 section 42) offers a different reason, namely, that the Greeks wanted to eliminate observance of the Torah from the Jewish People, so in that way Chanukah is like a new giving of the Torah, and just like on Shavuot there is a custom to eat dairy[4], so too on Chanukah.
Eating Waffles on Chanukah
There is also a custom to eat waffles on Chanukah. The origin of this custom is that Hashem (God) made nes vafeleh (miracle and wonders) during these days. To this end, a tradition developed in Amsterdam to eat vaffeles (Belgian waffles). This custom was later mentioned in a song written by Moshe Yehuda Piza (see also here) which describes all the food-related customs that are practiced throughout the year.[5]
Read more about traditional Jewish foods
[1] רמא (או”ח תרע:ב) Rama (Orach Chaim 670:2)
[2] I was not able to figure out how to navigate a Ben Ish Chai in order to locate this reference, however it is identified as being on page 44 by Rabbi Abraham Chill in The Minhagim (Ktav 2018; chapter on Chanukah, last footnote).
[3] The purpose of outlawing Rosh Chodesh would seem to have been that without sanctifying the new month, there would, by extension, be no festivals.
[4] In greater detail, where Moshe went to Heaven to receive the Torah, the angels tried to keep it for themselves. One of Moshe’s claims against them was that the angels ate meat and milk together at Avraham (Abraham)’s home, so they were therefore no longer worthy of the Torah being theirs. Avraham in fact did so purposely, in order for Moshe to have this claim. This is (one reason) why we eat dairy on Shavuot. Since the Chanukah miracle is a miniature of the Giving of the Torah, therefore Hashem orchestrated the Chanukah miracle to be partly effected by dairy, resembling the original Giving of the Torah.
[5] https://www.shearithisrael.org/prayer/liturgy/minor-holidays/ (heading: Ahaba Be’taanugim)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSqa0NL-FJo (at approx. 24 mins.)
Postscript: Perhaps one can eat the waffles with dairy syrup, ice-cream, or the like, thereby fulfilling both customs at once.
Submitted by Alexander Grinberg
