Judith is the famed heroine of Chanukah, saving her people from certain death at the hands of the Hellenist Greeks. But Judith’s courage took hold long before she cut off the Greek General Holofernes’ head. As we mentioned in a previous post, the Greeks practiced “jus primae noctis”,  forcing all Jewish brides to sleep with the Greek hegemon before they could be with their new husband. According to the Otzer Hamidrashim, this law was practiced for years until the daughter of the High Priest, Judith was about to be married. In protest to being given to the general, Judith uncovered her hair, tore her clothing, and stood naked before her family and the people of her city, Bethulia.

For a woman of such righteousness and stature, her demonstration sent shockwaves. Fearful that her defiance would endanger the rest of the Jewish people, her priestly brothers proclaimed that she would be killed. She responded, shaming her brothers for their cowardice and double standards.

“How is it that I can be shamed in front of my brothers and neighbors and not be shamed in the eyes of this impure, uncircumcised man with whom you want to betray me and take me to lie with?”

Her brothers were moved to action and it was then that the Maccabees decided to fight. They killed the Greek commander and his officers. In retaliation, the cruel General Holofernes had the city surrounded, cutting off their food and water supply. Her people besieged and starving, Judith once again emboldened herself, setting out to meet and seduce Holofernes. When she met the General’s soldiers, Judith allied herself with them, promising that she could help deliver the town of Bethulia to the Greeks.

Holofernes was enchanted with Judith’s beauty and charisma and intended to sleep with her. As he planned the attack on Bethulia, Judith set her own plan into motion. One night Judith entered Holofernes’ tent, proceeding to feed him cheese and wine until he fell into a deep, drunken slumber. Judith then recited a prayer, pleading with God to give her the strength to protect her people. Judith took Holofernes’ very own sword and brought it down on his neck, cutting his head off.

She wrapped his head, returned to the gates of Bethulia and cried, “Open the gates because God has already delivered a miracle through me!” The people responded, “Is it not enough that you prostituted and defiled yourself, now you come to scandalize us?” Judith then revealed Holofernes’ head and presented it to the elders, encouraging them to fight now that the enemy general had been neutralized. The Jews, emboldened by the heroism of Judith, rose up once again, this time defeating the Greek army.

Judith is the ultimate Maccabee.

But she had a certain power in this story: being a woman. At a time when even the Jewish men were demoralized and had yet to rise up and fight, Judith stepped in. She channeled her feminine strength, charm and allure to get exactly where she needed to be, to raise a sword and cut off the one of the heads of Hellenist Greece – a hedonistic culture hell-bent on destroying not only Jewish lives, but Jewish souls.

Judith’s name actually means “Jewess” or “woman from Judea,” which couldn’t be more fitting. Judith embodied the faith of Jewish women before her; the women enslaved in Egypt, who seduced their husbands into having children and continuing their faith; Yael, who lured the Canaanite General Sisera into her tent and then killed him with a tent-peg and later, Queen Esther, who used her wiles to lobby the king. These women- even when the men gave  up – stepped up to the plate, using their feminine power to do whatever it took to save their people. This bravery ultimately started the fight, allowing God to swoop in and perform miracles.