My daughter questions everything and seeks answers that are sometimes very elusive. She has become frustrated over the apparent hypocrisy of many religious people. She feels it is hard to assert her individuality in a society with so many demands (how to dress, how to eat, how to communicate, etc).
I have told her many times that women are special in the Jewish community, but she often counters that all there is, is chauvinism and foolish limitations. It seems that the prevailing attitudes in our culture have replaced the long history of learning and teaching.
Chanukah is a holiday that is celebrated due to the sacrifices and deeds of women.
Who preserved and nurtured the Jewish tradition from generation to generation? Whose unwritten wisdom upheld it? The first response of many would probably be “the Rabbis.” A more careful, more thoughtful answer would be “the women.”
The hard to define aspects of Jewish tradition and way of life-the feel of it, the smells of a home, the part that cannot be captured in words, that remain unwritten but lasting -were for generations due to the sacrifices and deeds of Jewish women. Their wisdom has molded and defined the character of Jewish life. We find this throughout our history and teachings. We also find it in the Chanukah story, in the remarkable characters of Chana and Yehudis.
One of the major victories over the Syrian-Greeks came about through the heroism of a woman. Yehudis, daughter of Yochanan the High Priest, spoke to the people in her besieged city to have faith in the Holy One, blessed be H, but the people weakened by starvation and fear wanted to surrender the city. Yehudis left the city under the cover of night and went to the commanding general, Holofrenes, and first fed him cheese dishes which made him thirsty (the source for eating dairy foods on Chanukah). She then brought him wine to quench his thirst. When he became drunk and fell asleep, she beheaded him and hung it from the city walls. When the enemy soldiers saw the head of their decapitated leader, they fled.
The Syrian-Greeks and their supporters, tried to destroy the Jewish way of life by forcing people to abandoned their Judaism. Chana had seven sons each were brought before Antiochus and told to bow to him and recognize his god. Each son refused. As the last of her sons was taken to be executed she told him, “My son, go and tell your father Abraham: You bound one son upon the altar; I bound seven children on seven altars.”
The legacy Jewish women represent continues wherever the Jewish tradition is guided, enriched, and uplifted by her daughters, the bearers of Judaism’s enduring legacy.
May all your tales end with Shalom (peace)
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Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. (Joel 1:3)
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Rachmiel Tobesman is a motivational speaker and Maggid (spiritual Storyteller). He is available for speaking engagements or storytelling, Click here to contact us
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