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Introductory Comments
About This Text[1]
Composed: c.250 – c.50 BCE
The Book of Judith is an apocryphal work that tells of a heroic woman who seduces and kills an enemy general, saving Israel from oppression. The book was not mentioned by any Jewish sources until the medieval period, when Judith’s character became a subject of discussion in legal works, talmudic commentaries, and liturgical poems. During this period, the story began to become associated with the holiday of Chanukah as new versions of the story emerged, some of them replacing the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar that featured in earlier versions with the Seleucid king Antiochus (the enemy of the Chanukah story). Judith has attracted more writers, artists, and composers than any other figure in the Apocrypha.
Judith is an apocryphal character. While she does not appear in the Tanakh, versions of her story are found both in the Apocrypha and Rabbinic literature. In the Book of Judith, she was a widow who snuck into the Assyrian camp and won over their general Holofernes before beheading him.
Judith’s Heroic Deed
Judith’s bravery and cunning led to a miraculous victory for the Jewish people during a time of oppression. The Mishnah Berurah recounts how Judith, the daughter of Yochanan the High Priest, used cheese to intoxicate and behead the chief oppressor, causing the enemy to flee.
Judith’s Dairy Deed and the Hanukkah Miracle
Judith’s bravery and her act of feeding Holofernes dairy foods inspired the Hasmoneans’ courage to rebel against the Greeks, linking her story to the Hanukkah miracle. The eighteenth-century chronicle Seder HaDorot by Rabbi Yechiel Heilprin connects Judith’s actions to the custom of eating dairy on Hanukkah.
Righteous Transgressions
Judith’s actions, including giving cheese to Holofernes, illustrate how the righteous sometimes need to transgress norms to achieve redemption and elevate spiritual sparks. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, in his Hasidic commentary Kedushat Levi, draws parallels between Judith and other biblical figures like Gideon and Jael.
The Heroic Deception of Judith
Judith’s strategic use of beauty and deception showcases her bravery and cunning in saving her people. The Book of Judith, part of the Apocrypha, tells the story of a widow who uses her beauty and cunning to defeat the Assyrian general Holofernes.
For she put off the garment of her widowhood, for the exaltation of those who were oppressed in Israel, and anointed her face with ointment, and bound her hair in a headdress, and put on a linen garment, to deceive him. Her sandals ravished his eyes; her beauty took his mind prisoner; and the broadsword passed through his neck.
Dairy Foods and Jewish Resistance
The custom of eating dairy foods on Chanukah is linked to the story of Judith, who used milk to defeat an enemy, symbolizing Jewish resistance to Greek oppression. In the Ben Ish Hai, Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad connects this custom to the broader theme of Jewish defiance against decrees that targeted key mitzvot.
We eat dairy foods on Channukah in memory of the miracle that occured through the milk that Judith fed to the enemy, who was one of the Grecian kings, as is recounted in the book 'Hemdat Yamim'. This miracle occured some years before the chief miracle of Channukah, but since the enemy was also a Grecian king, and he also wanted to make the Jews abandon their religion, we also commemorate this miracle during the days of Channukah. This is similar to the tradition of eating seeds on Purim to commemorate the miracle that occured to Daniel and his companions, peace be upon them… (Ben Ish Hai, Halachot 1st Year, Chanukah 24:1)
Judith’s Bravery
Judith's bravery led to the Assyrian army’s fear and flight, showcasing her heroism and divine intervention. The Book of Judith, an apocryphal work, tells the story of a heroic woman who seduces and kills an enemy general, saving Israel from oppression.
… and they will run to the tent of Holofernes, but will not find him; then fear will fall upon them, and they will flee before your face. (Judith 14:4)
And, the Gemara remarks, now that we say that lighting accomplishes the mitzva, there are practical ramifications. If a deaf-mute, an imbecile, or a minor, all of whom are of limited intellectual capacity and not obligated in mitzvot, kindled the Hanukkah light, he did nothing in terms of fulfilling the mitzva, even if an adult obligated in mitzvot subsequently set it down in its appropriate place. That is because placing a lit lamp does not constitute fulfillment of the mitzva … (Shabbat 23a:2, original emphasis)
Were in that miracle: Since the Greeks decreed upon all the virgins getting married to have intercourse with the high official first. And the miracle happened through a woman. (Rashi on Shabbat 23a:2:1)
The Book of Judith
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
The Book of Judith relates the story of God’s deliverance of the Jewish people. This was accomplished “by the hand of a female”—a constant motif (cf. 8:33; 9:9, 10; 12:4; 13:4, 14, 15; 15:10; 16:5) meant to recall the “hand” of God in the Exodus narrative (cf. Ex 15:6). The work may have been written around 100 B.C., but its historical range is extraordinary. Within the reign of Nebuchadnezzar (1:1; 2:1), it telescopes five centuries of historical and geographical information with imaginary details. There are references to Nineveh, the Assyrian capital destroyed in 612 B.C., to Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler not of Assyria but of Babylon (605/604–562), and to the second Temple, built around 515. The postexilic period is presumed (e.g., governance by the High Priest). The Persian period is represented by two characters, Holofernes and Bagoas, who appear together in the military campaigns of Artaxerxes III Ochus (358–338); there seem to be allusions to the second-century Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Several mysteries remain: Judith herself, Arphaxad, and others are otherwise unknown. The geographical details, such as the narrow defile into Bethulia (an unidentified town which gives access to the heart of the land), are fanciful. The simple conclusion from these and other details is that the work is historical fiction, written to exalt God as Israel’s deliverer from foreign might, not by an army, but by means of a simple widow.
There are four Greek recensions of Judith (Septuagint codices Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus, and Basiliano-Vaticanus), four ancient translations (Old Latin, Syriac, Sahidic, and Ethiopic), and some late Hebrew versions, apparently translated from the Vulgate. Despite Jerome’s claim to have translated an Aramaic text, no ancient Aramaic or Hebrew manuscripts have been found. The oldest extant text of Judith is the preservation of 15:1–7 inscribed on a third-century A.D. potsherd. Whatever the reasons, the rabbis did not count Judith among their scriptures, and the Reformation adopted that position. The early Church, however, held this book in high honor. The first-century Pope, St. Clement of Rome, proposes Judith as an example of courageous love (1 Corinthians 55). St. Jerome holds her up as an example of a holy widow and a type of the Church (To Salvina: Letter 79, par. 10; see also To Furia: Letter 54, par. 16) and, in another place, describes Mary as a new Judith (To Eustochium: Letter 22, par. 21). The Council of Trent (1546) included Judith in the canon; thus it is one of the seven deuterocanonical books.
Inner-biblical references are noteworthy: as God acted through Moses’ hand (Ex 10:21–22; 14:27–30), so God delivers “by the hand of a female,” Judith. Like Jael, who drove a tent peg through the head of Sisera (Jgs 4), Judith kills an enemy general. Like Deborah (Jgs 4–5), Judith “judges” Israel in the time of military crisis. Like Sarah, the mother of Israel’s future (Gn 17:6), Judith’s beauty deceives foreigners, with the result that blessings redound to Israel (Gn 12:11–20). Her Hebrew name means “Jewish woman.” Her exploits captured the imagination of liturgists, artists, and writers through the centuries. The book is filled with double entendres and ironic situations, e.g., Judith’s conversation with Holofernes in 11:5–8, 19, where “my lord” is ambiguous, and her declaration to Holofernes that she will lead him through Judea to Jerusalem (his head goes on such a journey).
The book can be divided into five parts:
I. Assyrian Threat (1:1–3:10)
II. Siege of Bethulia (4:1–7:32)
III. Judith, Instrument of the Lord (8:1–10:10)
IV. Judith Goes Out to War (10:11–13:20)
V. Victory and Thanksgiving (14:1–16:25)
1. Courtesy of Sefaria.org. https://www.sefaria.org/Book_of_Judith accessed 09 Oct. 2024 [BACK]
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