🡄 (Previous day) :: 📅 9 December 2025 📅 11 December 2025 :: (Next day) 🡆 📅 Resources published on 10 December 2025 Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first? The text of Ma’aseh Yehudit, the story of Judith, as found in Sefer Ḥemdat Yamim, a mystical compilation of customs and tiqqunim first published in İzmir in around 1731. (This text is also found as “Maaseh Yehudit, Version 2” in Judah David Eisenstein’s monumental Otzar Midrashim compilation.) Sefer Ḥemdat Yamim is a unique work, likely compiled by a Sabbatean but largely based on earlier pre-Sabbatean mystical sources, and because of this any specific text in it is quite difficult to date. This specific version of the story of Judith shows substantial influence from the Septuagintal text not found in earlier Jewish variants, giving a likely terminus post quem of several generations after the Inquisition when Spanish benei anusim brought their knowledge of the Vulgate’s apocrypha with them to Judaism. Even so, it is very clearly a fundamentally Jewish work. It is appropriate to recite on Yom haBanot (1 Tevet) or any time throughout Ḥanukkah, perhaps with Esther cantillation. Categories: Tags: 18th century C.E., 55th century A.M., חג הבנות Ḥag HaBanot, heroic women, Judith, Megillat Yehudit, predation, resistance, soporifics, women Contributor(s): | ||
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