Chanukah, Judith, and Weaponizing Cheese

A lantern that continued to burn the entire day of Shabbat, at the conclusion of Shabbat one extinguishes it and lights it again as a Hanukkah light. Granted, if you say that lighting accomplishes the mitzva, the requirement to extinguish the lantern and relight it in order to fulfill the mitzva of kindling the Hanukkah light works out well. However, if you say that placing accomplishes the mitzva, this statement, which stated that one extinguishes it and lights it, is imprecise. According to this opinion, it needed to say: One extinguishes it and lifts it from its place and sets it down and lights it, as only by placing the lamp in an appropriate place could one fulfill the mitzva of the Hanukkah light. Furthermore, there is additional proof that lighting accomplishes the mitzva. From the fact that we recite the following blessing over the mitzva of kindling the Hanukkah light: Who has made us holy through His commandments and has commanded us to light the Hanukkah light, the Gemara suggests: Conclude from this that lighting accomplishes the mitzva, as it is over lighting that one recites the blessing. The Gemara concludes: Indeed, conclude from this.

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. The lighting must be performed by a person with full intellectual capacity, obligated in mitzvot. However, a woman certainly may light, as Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Women are obligated in lighting the Hanukkah light, as they too were included in that miracle of being saved from the decree of persecution.

"They too were included in that miracle"...For the Greeks decreed that all (Jewish) virgins who were engaged had to have sex first with the high (Greek) official. And a miracle happened through a woman.

Since they were also part of the same miracle. Rashbam explained, that the primary part of the miracle was done by them; Purim - by Esther, Chanukah - by Judith, Pesach - for they were saved in the merit of the righteous ones of that generation....

Women are obligated to light Hanukkah candles, for they too were included in the miracle. This means that the enemies came to destroy everyone, men, women, and children, and there are those who say that the great miracle occurred through a woman. Her name was Judith, as the story goes, and she was the daughter of Yochanan, the high priest. She was extremely beautiful, and the Greek king wanted her to lay with him. She fed him a dish of cheese to make him thirsty, so that he would drink a great deal and became drunk, and recline and fall asleep. And it happened just that way, and once he was asleep, she took his sword and cut off his head. She brought his head to Jerusalem, and when the armies saw that their leader had been killed, they fled. For this reason, we have the custom of eating a cheese dish on Hanukkah.

(2) ...Rema:...Some say that cheese should be eaten during Hanukkah, because a miracle was done though milk which Yehudit fed the enemy. (Kol Bo and Nissim of Gerona).

(1) Now after this, she ceased to cry to the God of Israel, and she completed all these words. She rose where she had fallen down and called her maid; and she went down into the house in which she lived on the sabbath days and on her feast days, and she pulled off the sackcloth which she had on, and put off the garments of her widowhood,

(2) and washed her body all over with water, and anointed herself with precious ointment, and braided the hair of her head

(3) and put a headdress on it, and put on her garments of gladness, which she used to wear during the life of Manasseh her husband.

(4) And she put sandals on her feet, and she put on her bracelets and her chains and her rings and her earrings and all her ornaments, and she decked herself out boldly, to allure the eyes of all men who might see her.

(5) Then she gave her maid a bottle of wine and a cruse of oil, and filled a bag with parched grain and lumps of figs and with fine bread; so she folded all these things together and laid them upon her. Thus they went forth to the gate of the city of Bethulia,

(6) and they found standing there Uzziah and the elders of the city, Chabris and Charmis.

(7) And when they saw her, that her countenance was altered and her apparel was changed, they wondered at her beauty very greatly and said to her,

(8) May God, the God of our fathers, give you favor and accomplish your endeavors to the glory of the children of Israel and to the exaltation of Jerusalem. Then they worshipped God.

(9) And she said to them, "Command the gates of the city to be opened for me, so that I may go forth to accomplish the things that you have discussed with me."

(10) So they commanded the young men to open it for her, as she had said. And when they had done so,

(11) Judith went out, she and her maid with her; and the men of the city looked after her, until she had gone down the mountain and had passed the valley and they could see her no more.

(1) Now when evening had arrived, his servants hurried to depart, and Bagoas shut his tent from the outside and dismissed the waiters from the presence of his lord; and they went to their beds,

(2) for they were all weary because the feast had been long.

(3) And Judith was left alone in the tent with Holofernes lying by himself on his bed, for he was filled with wine.

(4) Now Judith had commanded her maid to stand outside her bedroom and to wait for her to go forth, as she did daily; for she said she would go forth to her prayers,

(5) and she spoke to Bagoas towards the same purpose.

(6) So everyone left and no one was left in the bedroom, neither little nor great. Then Judith, standing by his bed, said in her heart:

(7) "O Lord God of all power, look at this time upon the works of my hands for the exaltation of Jerusalem.

(8) For now is the time to help your inheritance and to execute your purposes for the destruction of the enemies who have risen against us."

(9) Then she went to the pillar of the bed, which was at Holofernes' head, and took down his broadsword from there.

(10) And she approached his bed, and took hold of the hair of his head, and said, "Strengthen me, O Lord God of Israel, this day."

(11) And she twice struck his neck with all her might, and she took his head away from him. And she tumbled his body down from the bed, and pulled down the canopy from the pillars; and, soon after, she went out

(12) and gave the head of Holofernes to her maid. And she put it in her bag of meat,

(13) so these two went together, according to their custom, to prayer; and when they passed the camp, they circled the valley and went up the mountain of Bethulia and came to its gates.

(14) Then Judith said, from far off to the watchmen at the gate,

(15) "Open, open the gate now! God, our God, is with us to show his power yet in Jerusalem and his forces against the enemy, as he has truly done on this day!"

(16) Now when the men of her city heard her voice, they hurried down to the gate of their city and they called the elders of the city.

(17) And then they ran all together, both small and great, for it was surprising to them that she had returned. So they opened the gate and received them;

(18) and they made a fire for a light, and they stood all around them.

(19) Then she said to them with a loud voice,

(20) "Praise, praise God, praise God, I say, for he has not taken away his mercy from the house of Israel, but has destroyed our enemies by my hands this night."

(21) So she took the head out of the bag and showed it and said to them,

(22) "Behold the head of Holofernes, the chief captain of the army of Assur, and behold the canopy where he had lain in his drunkenness; and the Lord has struck him by the hand of a woman.

(23) As the Lord lives, who has preserved me in the path that I took, my attractiveness has deceived him to his destruction, and yet he did not commit sin with me, to defile and shame me."

(24) Then all the people were wonderfully astonished, and bowed themselves and worshipped God,

(25) and said with one accord, "Blessed are you, O our God, who has this day brought to nothing the enemies of your people!"

(26) Then Uzziah said to her, "O daughter, blessed are you of the most high God above all the women upon the earth;

(27) and blessed is the Lord God, who has created the heavens and the earth, who guided you in cutting off the head of the chief of our enemies.

(28) Because of this, your resoluteness will not depart from the heart of men, who will remember the power of God for ever.

(29) And may God turn these things to your benefit as a perpetual praise, to assist you in good things because you have not withheld your life during the affliction of our nation, but have revenged our ruin, walking a straight path before our God."

(30) And all the people said, "Amen! Amen!"