December 23, 2006

• The religious significance of the jelly donut

  I have learned a new fact today, on what i believe is the 7th night of hanukkah, chaunkahh, or whatever we are calling it now

  (update: apparently hanukkah is over. my bad)

  Anywho, i went to a hanukkah party and was offered a veritable bevvy of jewish foods for the holidays including lox, bagels and cream cheese, jelly donuts, latkes and many more.

  Now perhaps you are saying to yourself, there is something in that list that does not belong there. A jelly donut, say? what in the world could a preserve filled confection have to do with the festival of lights, or judaism in general?

  well, brace yourselves, because you are about to learn the religious significance of the jelly donut

  After asking every single jew at this party (no really, i actually said is there a jew in the house who can tell me why there are jelly donuts here?) I was given this explanation

  First off, this is strictly an israeli/Sefardic tradition which is why i had so much trouble learning the answer as the great majority of jews in the united states are ashkenazi jews, famous for filling medical textbooks with conditions like tay sachs and others. but i digress.

  The explanation i was given said the donuts are called sufganiyot/ Now i am given to understand that this is similar to the jewish word for learning. So the fried bread part of the donut is the significant as all fried foods are for hanukkah, something about the temple oil lasting for 8 days so they fried a lot of stuff in it. But here is the kicker…the jelly is sweet. remember before about how the funny word in italics has something to do with learning? Well, the sweetness of the jelly is supposed to make the eater of said donut associate sweetness with learning and presumably get scholarly in an attempt to recapture that delicious memory.

  SO there you have it kids. Learning tastes like jelly, and the donut is religiously significant. What a wonderful world we live in

  -J

  ::Update: This link has a better and probably more accurate explanation which you should check out

  • 9:56 pm
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