Uzziah, their leader, pleaded with the populace to hold out for five days more, to afford Hashem the chance to come to their rescue and thereby spread His name far and wide. One lone person objected. “Who are we to test G-d and give Him an ultimatum and time frame?” asked Yehudis, a widow from the tribe of Shimon who considered Uzziah’s proposal a terrible one and let him know it.
“Did our forefathers react this way when they were tested with adversities?” she asked of the elders, whom she admonished to be a source of comfort and reassurance to the people, to strengthen their faith and to lead them in prayer and earnest supplication.
They hearkened to the widow’s wise words and she confided to them her own plan… and asked them to pray for her success and safety in her daring venture that night.
The beautiful, wealthy and exceedingly pious woman retreated to the privacy of her home where she entreated Hashem to help her vanquish the enemy that sought to bring shame to every new Jewish bride and to soil the Holy Sanctuary. Yehudis prayed to G-d that He punish the oppressor through his own sword.
She pleaded for chein and for unwavering courage in achieving her objective that would ultimately bespeak Hashem’s honor and prove that He can help His people without warriors in great numbers or the strength from horses.
The striking woman, resplendent in all her finery and jewels, mesmerized the general whose trust she gained almost instantly. Yehudis soon received clearance to come and go as she pleased. On the third night, Eliporni was overcome with desire to possess her and was insistent that Yehudis join him for a festive meal in her honor.
Yehudis brought her own food along and fed the general delicious salty cheese, after which he gorged himself with glass after glass of her toxic wine. When he fell into a deep drunken slumber, she availed herself of his sword that hung nearby and prayed for strength as she struck his neck and decapitated him.
As they did on the previous two nights, she and her maidservant left the enemy’s camp freely – but this time they carried the cloth-wrapped head of the general and would not be returning in the morning… And thus Yehudis, the G-d-fearing widow who was known to keep a low profile and had not adorned herself since the death of her husband, was instrumental in averting a disastrous outcome for the Jewish people in the Holy Land.
Following her participation in a three-month long Yom Tov-like celebration of thanksgiving to G-d for their sweet victory, Yehudis withdrew from the rest of the townsfolk and returned to her home where she lived to 105. No enemy approached Eretz Yisrael for the duration of the remaining years of her life.
The evil decrees of the Syrian-Greeks impacted woman as well as man, and so we are obligated in the mitzvah of lighting Chanukah lecht (though we are yotzeh with our husbands’ lighting). Women also refrain from performing any chores for a half hour after the Chanukah candles are lit. In remembrance of the heroic undertaking by Yehudis, eating dairy dishes is a Chanukah tradition in many homes.