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Ḥag haBanot (Eid el Benat) Readings

Ḥag haBanot (Eid el Benat) Readings

This is an archive of special readings prepared for the חג הבנות | Ḥag haBanot (عيد البنات | עיד אלבנאת | Eid el Benat), for the days on which Rosh Ḥodesh Tevet coincide with Ḥanukkah.

As Dr. Lori Lefkowitz has written, "On this New Moon...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.

Resources filtered by COLLABORATOR: “Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)” (clear filter)

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

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.

Categories:

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

Tags:

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

Contributor(s):

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

💬 מַעֲשֵׂה היְהוּדִית | Ma’aseh haYehudit — the story of Judith as found in the Sefer Ḥemdat Yamim

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:

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

Tags:

18th century C.E., 55th century A.M., חג הבנות Ḥag HaBanot, heroic women, Judith, Megillat Yehudit, predation, resistance, soporifics, women

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Unknown

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/index.php?cat=4628

Associated Image:

Judith (1921) by Arthur Szyk

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." (Psalms 90:17)

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