Yehudit, Chanuka and the Greatness of Jewish Women

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The story of Yehudit is perhaps one of the lesser-known miracles of the Chanuka story, but its impact is so great that the Rashbam held that the reason women are obligated in the mitzva of lighting the Chanuka candles is in the merit of Yehudit. Yehudit was the widowed daughter of the Kohen Gadol, Yochanan and she was a resourceful, intelligent and beautiful woman.

At the time of the Chanuka story, Holofernes, an evil Syrian-Greek general, enforced a deathly siege on a Jewish town. The people were dying of starvation, and cut off from any water supply. So catastrophic was the siege, that the leaders of the town gathered together and decided that their only option was to surrender to the enemy. Yehudit, a smart and righteous woman, heard of this plan and disapproved immediately, she refused to succumb to the enemy and allow the Jewish people to fall. Instead, she plotted a plan of her own.

Yehudit approached the enemy camp, dressed in her finest clothing. She requested a meeting with the evil general, Holofernes himself, impressing him with her charm and intelligence. Yehudit pretended to side with the enemy and flattered him for his military prowess. She advised him that in order to win over the town, Holofernes would have to wait until the people had nothing left to eat and eventually would turn to non-kosher meat. Once they did this, the anger of Hashem would be against them, and the people would be delivered into Holofernes’ hands. Holofernes promised that if Yehudit was indeed telling the truth, he would marry her.

Yehudit’s bravery and wisdom is a perhaps untold but incredibly heroic story and one which we celebrate until today. While the Maccabim’s eternal call of ‘Mi l’Hashem Eilai’ inspired the masses, Yehudit’s silent act of self-sacrifice was part of the Jewish people’s salvation. As the Gemara tells us ‘In the merit of the righteous women we were redeemed and in the merit of righteous women we will merit to be redeemed in the future.’

As the days passed, Holofernes grew impatient to conquer the town once and for all and Yehudit revealed to him that the people would soon be in his hands. To celebrate, he invited her to feast with him, an invitation she could not refuse. At the feast, Yehudit plied Holofernes with her powerful goat’s cheese, and he continued to pour himself generous goblets of wine. Holofernes grew sleepy and weary and Yehudit, seizing the moment, grabbed his sword and chopped off his head, freeing the Jewish people of their brutal enemy.

Yehudit’s act closely parallels the story of another great woman, Yael. Yael’s story occurred at the time of the conquest of the land of Israel, recorded in the book of Shoftim (judges). At the time, Sisera, who was a commander of the Canaanite army was pursuing battle with the Jewish people, led by the judge Devorah and her husband, Barak. When Sisera fled the scene of the unsuccessful battle, Yael invited him into her tent, and killed him. In a similar way to Yehudit, Yael gave him abundant milk to drink, inducing him into a deep sleep so that she could quickly kill him.

A unique part of the story of Yael and Sisera is that while Yehudit used a male sword to kill Holofernes, Yael used the peg of her own tent to stab Sisera. Yael was careful to highlight that she performed an act of war with a female instrument, and not a male one. Though she essentially made her home part of the battlefield, the way that she conducted her act illustrated that she was ultimately a woman of her tent. She may have carried out an act associated with male soldiers, but she did so with clear feminine identity.

Another comparison we could draw is between Yehudit and Esther. The way in which Yehudit approached Holofernes echoes the way Esther approached Achashverosh, although in Esther’s case she was instructed to do so by Mordechai. Both Yehudit and Esther, by inviting themselves into the private chambers of Holofernes and Achashverosh respectfully, risked losing their lives to save the Jewish people. Only the true spiritual greats can ascertain when one is permitted to risk their lives for the sake of the Jewish people.

In all three of these stories, we see a powerful manifestation of two pesukim in Sefer Tehillim, coexisting simultaneously. “Kol kevuda bat melech penima” and “eit laasot l’Hashem, heiferu toratecha.” The first pasuk refers to the innate dignity of the Jewish woman “all the honour of the King’s daughter lies within.” We see this in the tzniut of Esther, the tent peg of Yael and the feminine intelligence of Yehudit. At the same time, the second pasuk refers to the need for members of the Jewish people to rise up at times of danger “a time to act for Hashem, they have breached Your Torah.” Each of these women took on responsibility to save the Jewish people, acting against their feminine nature for the sake of Hashem’s Torah.

At this time of Chanuka, let us aspire to master these two pesukim together, in the way of Yehudit and all the great Jewish women before and since. Let us tap into our refined and royal nature as the daughters of Hashem, and lit up our homes with pure flames. Simultaneously, let us be courageous and unafraid of standing up for the will of Hashem even when it takes great bravery and boldness to uphold the Torah. Through this we are truly reliving the miracles of Chanuka, bayamim haheim bazman hazeh.