True, this is the feast of All Saints, so you can honor, entreat, and maybe even venerate (but not pray to) whichever saint or saints you want. But November 1 is also assigned to some particular saints. Among them is Deborah the Judge from the Old Testament Book of Judges. Before this morning, I had no idea that women were judges in ancient Israel, but "she used to sit under Deborah’s palm tree, situated between Ramah and Bethel in the mountain region of Ephraim, and there the Israelites came up to her for judgment"
This particular judge summoned the leader Barak, son of Abinoam, and enlisted him to make war on Sisera in Kadesh near the Wadi Kishon. Barak insisted that Deborah accompany him; she did, and the war was a smashing success. Literally, for Jael (a Hebrew woman in Sisera's tent) offered the general a bowl of curds and then drove a tent peg through his skull with a mallet while he was trying to eat. Deborah knew what's good: she had predicted "for the LORD will have Sisera fall into the power of a woman."
I knew the story of Jael from an Anthony Trollope novel, but I didn't know about Deborah. I should probably read Judges. From the excerpt I read this morning, it seems like epic stuff.
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