On one level it shouldn’t make sense. There is no connection between the Maccabees and Hanukkah and potatoes. Potatoes originate in this hemisphere and didn’t cross paths with Judaism until 1500 years after the events that became Hanukkah. While Potato latkes have become the Hanukkah staple, the reality is, they are disconnected from the Hanukkah-olive oil experience. The olive oil of Hanukkah is for kindling a flame not for frying food. On top of that, how many of us actually fry our latkes in olive oil! Yet, if we get creative, there are ways to tie our experience of making latkes to the act of kindling the Hanukah lights that bring forth vital values of our holiday.
There are two ways to link our Latke eating to our act of kindling the flames of Hanukah.
- Use the oil from your latke making as the fuel for your Hanukah lights. Rather than discarding all of the oil, reuse some of it to keep the light burning.
- Construct a Hanukkah menorah with LED lights powered by potatoes. This is called a potato battery. While it’s not a flame, like oil from the olive offering fuel in the Temple of Jerusalem, this is another way of bringing forth energy stored in plants. Moreover, one can then take the potatoes used in the structure and compost or plant for next year’s latke potatoes.
- We can witness the miracle of drawing energy from seemingly nowhere.
- We experience the act of storing energy over time in order to release in a cold and dark time of year.
- Like the Maccabees fighting a superior Greek force, we find creative ways of emitting light
- Even after the light goes out on the holiday, planting seeds of next year’s observance, honoring the victory of the Maccabees with a Judaism that conserves and sustains, looking to the future as well as the past.
I’m not sure that potatoes can be set up to generate enough power to light 8 lights or how long the oil from Latke frying will last in a oil lamp, but isn’t that the highest value of Hanukkah, to work to pull off the unexpected for the sake of making the world a better place….
For more information on Potato Batteries: https://www.scidev.net/global/news/potato-battery-could-help-meet-rural-energy-needs/