The soporific power of Torah is also attested in aggadot telling how the Israelites fell unconscious at the giving of the Torah at Sinai. Deborah Levine Gera, provides additional context from the period of the Rishonim when Megillat Yehudit was composed:. The foremost exegete of the Talmud, Rashi Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, β , when discussing why women, as well as men, are required to light Hanukkah candles, simply notes that when the Greeks decreed that Jewish virgin brides were to be bedded first by the ruler, a woman brought about the miracle.
Later commentators bring further details. Nissim ben Reuben ca. In his account, which he says comes from a midrash, the woman gave the chief enemy cheese to eat so as to make him drunk, and then cut off his head.
This, adds the Ran, is why it is customary to eat cheese on Hanukkah. In the Kol Bo section 44 , a work outlining Jewish laws and customs dating to the thirteenth or fourteenth century, we find a similar version. In this account, the king of Greece attempts to seduce Judith, the daughter of the high priest Yochanan, and she feeds him a cheese dish so that he will become thirsty, drink too much, and fall asleep.
The secondary transcription sources we have used are the same as those used by Dr. Weingarten for her translation: A. Neubauer Catalogue no. Any errors in the transcription are my own. I am grateful to Dr. Weingarten for sharing her work under an Open Content license. Please read Dr. Here is the introduction to her translation of Megillat Yehudit:. Biblical books are referenced with the short titles following the Chicago style cf.
As he points out, , when the manuscript was copied by Moses Shmeil Dascola, is not necessarily the date of redaction. The Hebrew text has been published twice in full by A. The second part of the manuscript only, with the story of Judith, was published by A. Dubarle: Judith: formes et sens des diverses traditions II: textes Rome, , pp.
