Ḥag haBanot (Eid el Benat) • the Open Siddur Project ✍ פְּרוֺיֶּקט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ

This is an archive of special readings prepared for the חג הבנות | Ḥag haBanot (عيد البنات | עיד אלבנאת), for the days on which Rosh Ḥodesh Tevet coincide with Ḥanukkah.
As Dr. Lori Lefkowitz has written, “On this New Moon, the sixth night of Ḥanukkah, girls are given gifts, sometimes jewelry that would be their inheritance, and special blessings. It is customary to read the story of Judith, and yes, to eat salty cheeses. And one custom that I especially like, girls who were quarreling used the occasion of the festival to kiss and make up.”
Click here to contribute a special reading, prayer, or song that you have prepared for the Ḥag haBanot.
Looking for something else?
For all special readings for Ḥanukkah, go here.
For all prayers, prayer-poems, and songs for Ḥanukkah, go here.
For prayers on International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, go here.
For prayers on Rosh Ḥodesh Tevet, go here.
For prayers on Agunah Day before Purim, go here.

Soliloquy of Yehudis, by Moreh Yehudis Fishman

Contributor(s):

Yehudis Fishman

Categories:

Ḥanukkah Readings, Ḥag haBanot (Eid el Benat)

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Judith

A soliloquy in the voice of Judith. . . .

מְגִילַּת יְהוּדִית לְאָמְרָהּ בַּחֲנֻכָּה | Megillat Yehudit, the Medieval Scroll of Judith to be said on Ḥanukkah

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Susan Weingarten (translation), Moshe Shmi'el Dascola and Unknown Author(s)

Categories:

Megillot, Ḥanukkah Readings, Ḥag haBanot (Eid el Benat)

Tags:

Megillat Yehudit, High Middle Ages, 14th century C.E., heroic women, women, חג הבנות Ḥag HaBanot, Judith, anti-predatory, 52nd century A.M., dairy foods, derivative work, soporifics, resistance

This is a faithful transcription of the text of the medieval Megillat Yehudith (the Scroll of Judith), not to be confused with the deutero-canonical Book of Judith, authored in Antiquity. We have further set this text side-by-side with the English translation made by Susan Weingarten, and vocalized and cantillated the Hebrew so that it may be chanted. . . .

אודך כי אנפת בי | Odekha Ki Anafta Bi, a Yotser (Hymn) for Ḥanukkah by Yosef bar Shlomo of Carcassone (ca. 11th cent.)

Contributor(s):

Yosef ben Shlomo of Carcassonne, Girls in Trouble and Dr. Sara Reguer (translation)

Categories:

Ḥanukkah, Ḥag haBanot (Eid el Benat)

Tags:

Megillat Yehudit, High Middle Ages, acrostic, פיוטים piyyutim, predation, Judith, Alphabetic Acrostic, 11th century C.E., 49th century A.M.

“Odecha ki anafta bi (I give thanks to you although you were angry with me) was composed by Joseph ben Solomon of Carcassonne, who is dated to the first half of the eleventh century. This elegant and abstruse poem tells an epic tale of the Jews’ resistance to the decrees of Antiochus IV and includes accounts of both the Hasmonean bride and Judith. It bears a considerable resemblance to texts 4 and 12 of the Hanukkah midrashim[ref]See Grintz, Sefer Yehudit, pp. 205, 207–08[/ref] and this is evidence for the circulation of the joint Hasmonean daughter-Judith tales in the eleventh century, even if the surviving manuscripts of these stories are from a later date.” (Deborah Levine Gera, “The Jewish Textual Traditions” in The Sword of Judith: Judith Studies Across the Disciplines (2010).) . . .

מִדְרַשׁ מַעֲשֶׂה חֲנֻכָּה א׳ | Midrash Ma’aseh Ḥanukkah “alef,” a tale of the people’s resistance to the Seleucid Greek occupation

Contributor(s):

Anat Hochberg (translation), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Unknown Author(s)

Categories:

Midrash Aggadah, Ḥanukkah Readings, Ḥag haBanot (Eid el Benat)

Tags:

חג הבנות Ḥag HaBanot, Late Antiquity, Early Middle Ages, colonization, sexual violence, sexual predation, Droit du seigneur, eating animals

This digital edition of Midrash Ma’aseh Ḥanukkah was transcribed from the print edition published in Otzar Hamidrashim (I. D. Eisenstein, New York: Eisenstein Press, 5675/1915, p.189-190). With much gratitude to Anat Hochberg, this is the first translation of this midrash into English. . . .

מדרש לחנוכה | Midrash l’Ḥanukkah, an interwoven miscellany of Ḥanukkah stories

Contributor(s):

Aliza Arzt, Isabel Bard (translation) and Unknown Author(s)

Categories:

Midrash Aggadah, Ḥanukkah Readings, Ḥag haBanot (Eid el Benat)

Tags:

colonization, sexual violence, sexual predation, Droit du seigneur, Seleucid Greek Occupation, חג הבנות Ḥag HaBanot, Angels, Early Middle Ages, cosmological

The following is the Midrash l’Ḥanukkah, one of a collection of three midrashim and two megillot containing the details of the story of Ḥanukkah in the Jewish rabbinic tradition. Those already familiar with these other works will quickly recognize portions or summaries of them here albeit with precious additional information added not found anywhere else. . . .