One of the best-known paintings by the 17th century Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi is of Judith beheading Holofernes, a powerful and bloody scene from the book of Judith. If you’re not familiar with it, Judith is one of the books of the Apocrypha, a series of ancient texts including First and Second Maccabees, composed by Jewish writers that appears in some Christian Bibles, but is not included in the Tanach, Jewish scripture. In spite of her exclusion from the Jewish canon, the story of Judith does indeed appear in various versions in Jewish tradition.
Not only is Judith seen as a Jewish heroine as depicted in these narratives, but she has become linked with Chanukah to the extent that some rabbis connect the custom of women avoiding labor while the Chanukah candles are burning to the idea that “women too were included in the miracle of Chanukah,” and then pointing to the story of Judith as a prime example. Others mention a custom of having dairy products (think sour cream on latkes) to the feeding of the enemy leader salty cheese causing him to drink wine to excess, fall asleep, and then lose his head to the heroine. One of the strange things about the book of Judith is that when one actually reads it, there seems to be little or no connection to Chanukah or to the Maccabees. The characters, the time, and the enemies mentioned in the story are not accurate historically and yet Judith has become related somehow to our Chanukah observance. In the book of Judith in the Apocrypha, there is no mention of her using cheese or milk to lull the enemy general to sleep. That was a different general, a different heroine. It was Yael in the book of Judges, and warm milk was what Yael used to put the Canaanite general Sisera to sleep after which she simply pounded a tent-peg into her victim’s head and did not try decapitation.
The book of Judith is set in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar who is described as ruling over the Assyrians. Here too, one wonders why the well-known King of Babylonia is depicted here as the ruler of Assyria. Nebuchadnezzar, by the way, lived about four centuries prior to the Chanukah story. In this book, after a terrible battle with his enemies in the East, the king sets his eyes toward the West and sends his general Holofernes to massacre the people of the western provinces including Judea. As the massive armies approach, the Jews put on sackcloth and ashes and pray for divine salvation. The town of Bethulia becomes the focus of attention as it stands in the way of the armies coming toward Jerusalem. Only in chapter 8, does Judith first appear. At this point, the enemy has cut off the water supply to the people of Bethulia and they cry out to the ruling council urging surrender rather than dying of thirst.
Judith, a widow, whose husband had died some three years before, appears before the crowd and urges them to have faith in God and she tells them she has a plan to defeat the enemy. With no better idea, they allow her to carry out her plot. After appropriate prayer and fasting, she dresses up seductively and descends from the city into the camp of the enemy. She is such a striking beauty that the soldiers immediately take her to the general and she offers him what she claims is inside information about the spiritual state of the Jews making them vulnerable to the enemy’s attack. Holofernes is charmed and ignores advice from other counselors. He invites Judith to join him for dinner and while she goes to his tent, she has brought her own kosher food with her and her maid servant. She eats and drinks with him and he is so enamored that he overdoes it with wine. Once he is asleep, she takes his own sword, chops off his head, puts it into her pack and she and her servant go out, as they had done previously, ostensibly to pray, but instead head back up the mountain and inform the people of her successful mission. When the enemy learns that their general has lost his head, they panic and flee for their lives and the Jews send out their army the next day and decisively defeat the enemy.
In another version of the story that appears in a collection of midrashim, the heroine is not named but is described as the daughter of the prophets and hence a reliable source of information. She appears before the king of the “goyim” (unspecified nations) and it is he who loses his head to her charms.
In another work known as Maaseh Yehudit, the story of Judith, which is cited in a work called Chemdat Yamim, Holofernes appears, but as the King of the Greeks this time besieging Jerusalem. This version incorporates a number of familiar expressions found in the book of Esther. This story is longer and a bit more elaborate. The descriptions of the widow Judith sound again like those of Esther. Her prayers and fasting are described in detail. Once she appears in the enemy camp, we again hear much detail of her words to the king and his army and, on the third day, the king proposes marriage to Judith and she ostensibly accepts. At the great feast that is held, we do find a brief mention of cheese and of milk that Judith and the king drink, but also of wine. Ultimately the story is the same once Holofernes falls asleep and all his officers leave him alone with Judith. The rest of the story unfolds as before as Holofernes is left headless.
These varying traditions and the blatant inaccuracies in the descriptions should not concern us very much. Just as some modern scholars have told us that the book of Daniel, set in the court of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors, was a covert volume using a narrative set in a period centuries earlier to speak about the tyranny of Antiochus in the days of the Maccabees, so too the Judith traditions may be seen as linked by these strange narratives to the Chanukah story.
Some suggest that this Judith is conflated with another Judith, the daughter of the High Priest Jochanan, thus a relative of the Maccabee family. (Mattathias is the son of Yochanan in the Al HaNIssim prayer.) In another late midrash we’re told that one of the oppressive decrees of the Seleucid King was the demand that any woman being married must spend the first night with the local governor before being allowed to sleep with her new husband. In this story, Judith the daughter of the High Priest is engaged to be married about three and a half years after this decree has been established. She refuses to submit and instead tears her clothes and, in one version appears in rags and in another stark naked before the people. Her family is outraged, but she taunts them asking why her behavior upsets them when they seem perfectly ready for her to endure shame before the governor. She rouses them to action, and they kill the governor and the war of the Maccabees begins. Also among the narratives of this period, one finds the tragic martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons who refuse to yield to decree of the kings and are killed one by one in front of their mother before she herself is executed. Throughout this narrative, the mother urges her sons to have faith in the future redemption and the fortitude to remain faithful to the teachings of Torah even at the cost of their lives. Some refer to this story of martyrdom as Chana and her seven sons, though her name is not mentioned in the Books of the Maccabees.
I find it fascinating that, in spite of the patriarchal society of the Jewish community at this time, we are reminded again and again of the role of women in saving their people from their enemies and rising up against tyrrany. Not only is Judith cited at Chanukah time, but Esther, of course, at Purim, and for Passover we find the midwives, Shifra and Puah, Moses’s sister Miriam and mother, Yocheved, as well a Pharaoh’s daughter, Bithiah according to Chronicles, and Moses’s wife Zipporah, all playing important roles in the Exodus narrative. The men may go out to battle the enemies, but the women work subtly and cleverly behind the scenes to bring about victory. When one reads the text of First Maccabees, one finds battle after battle described after the events of Chanukah and various alliances and intrigues discussed during this period of the second century BCE. The similarity to the opening of the book of Judith is striking.
Like the book of Daniel, the book of Judith seems to use historical inaccuracies and anachronisms purposefully. Judith’s story though set centuries before, contains elements that resonate with the Maccabean struggle against the Seleucids. This could be seen as a way to inspire resistance and reinforce Jewish solidarity without directly confronting the Hellenistic oppressors. This technique of using fiction to critique contemporary rulers and situations without specifically naming them is quite clever. In essence, Judith’s story can be seen as an allegorical tool, much like Daniel’s, providing moral and political guidance under the guise of historical narrative. This approach allowed Jewish authors to address contemporary issues indirectly, offering both hope and a call to action without directly risking the ire of powerful rulers. If you see parallels in contemporary society, you may want to write that book that will lead us out of darkness to a great light speedily and soon.
In less than two weeks we will be celebrating the festival of lights once more. Let us remember as we laud the victories of the Maccabees that the victory was not wrought solely by men, but that we all were in it together and together we have worked to bring redemption to our people and the world. Chag sameach, happy holidays.
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