There are two types
of Jews at Hanukkah time. There are those who believe that Israelis
eat jelly donuts on Hanukkah because the oil in which the donuts are
fried is connected to the miracle commemorated on Hanukkah. Others hold
that Israelis eat jelly donuts because somehow the sweetness of the
jelly inside is related to the festival. Etymologically, if not historically,
"Others" have a good case.
Some readers may remember having learned that 
(hannuka)
is so called because
(hanu khaf heh), "They [the Maccabees] rested on the 25th
[of Kislev]." Quaint idea; wrong shoresh (root-word). Scripture
records many types of (hanukkah)
before the clash of Antiochus Epiphanes and Judah Maccabee. None of
them speaks of "resting," from the root 
(het,
nun, heh); all of them are related to inauguration, from
(het, nun, khaf). Deuteronomy teaches, for example, that a man
who has built a new house 
(ve-lo hanakho), "and has not dedicated it," is exempt
from military service.
A
second verbal form derived from our root has to do with the initiating
the young into the Jewish community via education. The Book of Proverbs
tells us 
(hanokh la-na'ar), "educate the youth" in a way appropriate
for him and he will continue to behave properly into old age. It may
fairly be said of Eliezer Ben Yehuda, the Hebrew 
(mehanekh), educator, par excellence, that he almost single-handedly
(hanakh tekufa hadasha), inaugurated a new era, for the Jewish
people
And what does all this have to do with jelly donuts? If we remember
that the letter 
(nun) has a habit of slipping in and out of words, we come to
the two-letter root-word 
(hekh), palate. This word is found in a whole range of idiomatic
expressions, from the phrase in the Jewish pledge of allegiance to Jerusalem,
(tidbak leshoni le-hiki), "may my tongue cleave to the roof
of my mouth" to the expression for "a really fine orator,"
(hiko mamtakim), literally "his palate is [like] sweets."
More to our point, and sweeter yet, is an ancient initiatory ceremony
in which the
(hekh), palate, of a young pupil was rubbed with date honey,
so that the child would associate learning with sweetness (there is
a similar ceremony using honey.) In Arabic, this palate-rubbing ceremony
of initiation is called hanakka. Both the meaning and the sound
of this Arabic word make the connection between
(hekh), palate, and 
(hinnukh), education, on the one hand, and the ceremonial aspect
of Hannuka , on the other, more readily apparent.
