They tried to kill us...

Today is the festival of Purim. Well, it started at sundown yesterday and runs to sundown today. It commemorates the unmasking of a plot by a Persian courtier to kill all Jews in the empire.

The person who foiled the genocide was the wife of King Ahaseurus, Queen Esther, who was a Jew. This took place in the 4^th Century BCE, but you’ll notice that history has been repeating itself pretty much ever since then.

Anyhow, Esther found out that the prime minister, Haman, was planning genocide, and she outed him in a clever way, which forms the basis of today’s celebration.

Esther won her position in a sort of beauty contest, which is a different history lesson altogether. However, her physical appeal does play into her ability to influence Ahaseurus, who hanged Haman. Then the Jews, given the right to defend themselves, killed a lot of those who wanted to destroy them.

And the next day they celebrated. Ergo Purim, which is a festival, involving feasting.

Here’s why I bring it up.

This image of Esther came around on social media, and I freely admit that Esther is quite the dish here, and you can see how Ahaseurus would let himself be guided by her rather than by Haman (who, by some accounts, had triangular ears).

However, I’ve always been more of a Judith girl myself. Her story is about triumphing over those who’d wish to destroy you, too, only she’s more of an actor than an influencer.

It seems that Holofernes led an invading army in behalf of Nebuchadnezzar, and he was proving successful against everyone, including the Jews, who had not actually been defeated, but they had become mightily discouraged.

One night, a widow named Judith sneaked into the enemy camp, entered the general’s tent and seduced him. Then, while he was lying basically exhausted, she cut off his head.

That proved enough to discourage his army, as well as invigorate the Jews’ army and they were saved.

Judith’s story did not make it into the mainstream Jewish and Protestant holy books (although the Roman and Orthodox Old Testaments include it). Possibly—and I’m just spitballing here—because it makes patriarchal power holders really uncomfortable to consider that while masses of armed males quail, a single woman has a set big enough to take care of business in a very direct, up-close-and-personal kind of way, involving a sharp blade and a swift stroke.

(I think there may also be some crossover angst revolving around the fact that a “head” was involved. You know how easy it is to confuse your heads when you’ve only got sufficient blood supply for one at a time.)

But it’s always appealed to me. Judith sees the problem, she weighs the possibilities, she makes a plan and she executes it. (Um.) She’s beautiful (you did see the part about seducing Holofernes, right?), smart, resolute, good with the cutlery and utterly courageous. Here's a woman who cuts through the crap, cuts to the chase, cuts through the carotid. I really like that in a broad.

As for images of Judith in action—there are quite a few famous ones. Here are two of my favorites. First by Gustave Klimt, painted in 1901.

I adore Klimt, and this is a gorgeous rendition, even though it’s lacking all context. Just this stunning woman, shimmering in gold, who happens to be holding the severed head of a barbarian.

Well, as you do.

My second—actually my very favorite—is by Artemisia Gentileschi, from the early 17^th Century. This one captures all the violence, power and resolve of Judith’s action.

Gentileschi was an incredible painter. She turned her own experience of being raped into the most vivid depiction yet of this story. It beats the daylights out of Caravaggio’s version. (I saw them both at an exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2001.)

Okay, well—back to today’s feast, which involves (among other things) Hamantashen and kreplach pastries. Sweet things to recall a good outcome.

And let me close with what a colleague of mine once said is the summary of all Jewish holidays:

“They tried to kill us. We won. Let’s eat.”