Rebbetzin Chava Kuperman
"With a spindle in her hands, she sits at the spinning wheel..."
This verse refers to Yael. When Sisera, the military commander pursued by Deborah's militia, came to her and asked for water, Yael gave him milk instead of water to see how he would behave. A person in a normal state of mind who asks for water but gets something else should at least be surprised. Sisera, however, gulped it down and did not notice what he had drunk. He paid no attention at all! From this, Yael concluded that he was in a bad way, his mind was clouded, and fear and his long flight had robbed him of his senses.
Milk is not easy for an adult to digest; as a rule, it saps one's strength and causes drowsiness. And when Sisera falls asleep, Yael kills him.
She uses a stake to do this.
Why does the verse speak of a spindle and a spinning wheel? Because a woman may not use a man's tool. It was no accident that Yael did not take Sisera's sword, though she could easily have done so. But she did not wish to defile her hands with a man's weapon and used something men do not use. As a result, Yael is praised in song as a woman who “reached out her hands to women's tools.” In the song praising Yael, “a woman's tool” is emphasized twice. It is said that she will be blessed in all synagogues and tents of Torah because she did not violate the prohibition.
In the Book of Judges (chapter 5, verse 24), it says: “May Yael, wife of Heber the Kenite, be blessed among women. Among women in tents, may she be the most blessed”.
The last line compares Yael to the Matriarchs. Why? How did the Kenite's wife earn such an honor?
Because what she did was special.
If, in doing something, we know it is right and will certainly meet with everyone's approval—and, moreover, inspire universal admiration and even make us famous—then however hard and difficult the deed may be, knowing that it is right and will succeed gives us a tangible extra measure of strength.
But sometimes it is different: we do something and know it is right, yet we also know very well that people will later disapprove, look down on us, and lament—oh! oh! oh! What have you done? How could you do such a thing? Ugh!
Knowing that our actions will inevitably be unpopular saps our strength and makes it much harder to act.
Yael killed Sisera. That was no easy thing. Killing as such is an unpopular act for a woman. It gives everyone a reason to express their bewilderment: How could you? This is no task for a woman!
But she went ahead with it and tried to do everything in a woman's way. And so she will be blessed above many other women.
The comparison of Yael to the Matriarchs is well deserved. It is said that the Matriarchs “created the Jewish people in tents.”
This was not easy work; at times they had to yield their husbands to other wives, but it was wholly women's work, and they knew what mission they were fulfilling.
Killing is, of course, not women's work. Yet by this killing, Yael saved all the Jews. Our Matriarchs brought the people into being, while Yael sustained and preserved them.
to be continued