Our Apocryphal Hannukah Heroine, the widow Judith of Bethulia, a female figurehead of Jewish resistance and the beheader of enemies. She is one of many women who strategically seduce horrible men in power to emasculate/harm/murder them in their vulnerable, sexually charged state.
Yehudit is a pious widow in a Jewish community who is threatened by Assyrian (or sometimes Greek) forces. Disappointed with the passivity of the men in her community, she shames them for not calling on God for help and takes matters into her own hands. After praying to God, Yehudit uses ~feminine wiles~ and trickstery ways to seduce the enemy soldiers and their general, Holofernes. He submits himself to her and her God and once she gets him drunk and vulnerable, she cuts off his head with his own sword.
Judith carries the head of the slain general out of the camp to declare victory for her people.
Before latkes, it used to be a common custom to eat cheese on Hannukah, due to one of many versions of the story where Yehudit feeds the enemy general salty cheese to get him thirsty for wine and drunk to exhaustion.
🎨 @wifebaerae during our Deviant Drash class at MNJCCs Lishmah 2025 winter semester!
