Na'omi bat Yehudah (Israelite judge)

Computer-generated image of the Judge Na'omi
bat Yehudah, based on paintings and records of
her acclaiming day as a Judge.

 The Judge Na'omi bat Yehudah was born in Bet Shemes on the 1st day of the first regular month, year 197 AC (After Capture); and died on the same day, year 247 A.C (at her 50th birthday, 99 Earth years). She is the second female leader of the Israelites, and the third woman to lead a nation in Geloan history, the first being the Israelite Judge Abihayil bat Amram (acclaimed in 190 A.C after her father's death) and the second being the Moabite queen Melkah, daughter if the king Aglun (although her powers were severely diminished and shared with her husband and king Makhlon).

She is considered to be the "matriarch" of medicine in Meshola Yisrel.

PERSONAL LIFE

She was born to Yehudah and Mikhal, both of them of the Kohen family. Her father used to perform ritual sacrifices in the Second Temple at Bet Shemes, and her mother worked in the weaving of tapestry for rich families. Since the age of 3 (5 in Earth years) she has dedicated her time to the study of the Israelite religion, which was uncommon at that time for a girl at her age, and she was admitted to the Women's School of Torah, where she soon was recognised as an "elevated soul", and frequently attended the lessons on the Torah given by the then Judge Abihayil bat Amram.

She married to her cousin (father side) and priest Eliab, both at the age of 9 (17 Earth years). They had five children, whose names were not preserved except for Ele'azer ben Eliab, who after his mother's death compiled and published most of her notes as a four books series to help physicians treat the patients; only the final pages of the fourth book remain, detailing the recovery of patients after the administration of processed bread mould.

ACCEPTANCE AS PROPHETESS

Na'omi was dedicated to the studies until the age of 9 (17 Earth years), and didn't even work with her mother, with her family paying for her studies. She also learned medical treatments, and it is said that she developed some medicines herself, including a method of using a type of bread mould (now thought to be Penicillium) to treat infected injuries. It was also at that age she married to her cousin Eliab, and also caught the attention of the Judge Abihayil as a well-versed person, becoming her pupil. Different from other married Levite women, who used to wear a colourful hair covering with gold or silver jewels, she used a simple black veil as other women from other tribes - except during religious festival.

At that time there were several people who were alledgedly prophets, but the majority were rejected on the grounds of little to no knowledge of the Torah; she disproved such allegations on her.
At her 10th birthday, however, it is said she had a dream where G-d called her to be a prophetess, and it is said that also the Judge Abihayil had the same dream. Even so, the Bet Shemes priests at first dismissed her as another false prophet, but she defied their warnings to not attend to people as a prophetess (at one point she was almost punished with lashes, escaping the punishment after a fire broke out in the tribunal). She was finally recognised as a prophetess when she went to a murder trial and advocated for the innocence of the accused man, bringing proofs, and also accused the brother of the victim of killing him unintentionally, who admitted the murder (according to Israelite law at that time, if a person admits to the unintentional murder and repents, he's punished with 39 lashes). This situation was then understood by the priests in Bet Shemes as proof she indeed was chosen by G-d as prophetess.

POLITICAL ROLE

She was already gaining religious and political power before her ascension to power, mainly due to her master's endorsement, to the point her master used to ask for her opinion on some political matters publicly.

A few weeks before her birthday, Judge Abihayil calls for a public gathering at Bet Shemes ahead of the celebrations for the New Month and, before the doors to the Temple were opened, she announced in front of the crowd the was abdicating the position of Judge in favour of her pupil and prophetess, Na'omi. It is said the crowd then chanted "a valour woman is Abihayil, joyful is to me Na'omi" [ʔ'i.ʃaθ ħ'a.jil ʔa.bi.ħ'a.jil, n'o.ʔam l'i na.ʔo.m'i], since it was Israelite custom to attibute a laudatory phrase to a Judge viewed as a great person (the second part, "pleasant is to me Na'omi", was her laudatory phrase).

A legend says that once, a group of priests was trying to contest her position as Judge, and considered having two woman as judge in a row "was not supposed to happen" and this could lead women to go against their husbands. Some other recognised prophets came to her defence, claiming no such thing was actually happening, and that the Judge Na'omi was actually following in the footsteps of her predecessor. At one point, one of the prophets argued "the sons of Levi try to shame the daughter of Levi, but the daughter of Levi never tried to shame anyone". No serious disputes to her role as judge were recorded other than this legend.

Her government is considered to be one of the quietest in Israelite history, marked by very little threat of war or civil unrest, and some consider her to be the keeper of Judge Abihayil's legacy.

She managed to secure several trade routes and treaties with the Canaanites and the Qedarites. She also is credited with the rule that at least five sages in a city should be well versed in Medicine in order to help the local population (others attribute this to her successor, Judge Shemayah ben Hayim, who also was a physician).

RESCUE OF ABIHAYIL SHIP'S CREW

The most serious political and military action enacted by her was the rescue operation of the scientific team that sailed onboard the Abihayil ship and mistakenly landed on the Ekronean eastern shore. She picked one hundred of the most skilled soldiers, prayed with them for almost a whole day, and sent them towards the reported location where the crew was being kept.

A day after their departure, she sent an additional of around 7,500 soldiers, who volunteered to help rescue the crew - as a sign that she was fully trusting G-d to help them, she sent her younger son Ele'azer (8 year-old/16 Earth years) to lead the operation. The skilled soldiers, aware that a large troop would follow since almost everybody wanted to rescue the hostages, went ahead and marked military criptic signs along the way to help orient the troops.

The sheer ammount of troops all at once following the same path was enough to frighten any smaller Ekronean troops they found in their path - sometimes, ambushes were made in order to avoid head-on clashes with Ekronean patrols and potential loss of Israelite soldiers. The skilled soldiers managed to release the hostages in the middle of the night, and reunited with the troops a few thousand cubits from the military post; most of the troops headed back to Israelite territory, while at least a thousand men stood behind to destroy the base and put Ekronean troops to run. Little to no clashes happened on the way back, and the soldiers left behind prompty reached them, and it is said no Israelite soldier died those days.

The move caused confusion to Ekronean government and troops, and several conflicting reports were always arriving about the number of troops. At one point the king Kalyat II considered surrendering the mines believing the number of troops invading was in the millions, but was dissuaded by his ministers. Later that day he ordered his entire army to go after the Israelites and fight them if cities or military posts were to be under Israelite attack, deploying them all over the border.

After a week no report of cities or military posts under Israelite siege was received (other than the one that kept the Israelite hostages), and the king understood the action was a mere rescue operation. He considered a retaliatory attack, but the KUC attack on the nothernmost Ekronean cities initiated four days after the initial reports of Israelite infiltration forces him to change his plans and attack the invader KUC troops instead.

The Judge Na'omi did not attend the burial of any of the crewmen, as she was busy taking care of some of the surviving crewmen who had infections due to cuts and torture.

IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTIONS

Antibiotics: Judge Na'omi is said to be the developer of the first antibiotics, which helped to save several lifes considered to be beyond help at her time. She alledgedly developed a method to cultivate a type of bread mould and treat infected wounds, but there are no records as to how she discovered it or how she did it at her time.
Tribal endogamy abolished: She is also credited with the abolition of this rule, which was in place since the days of the first judge, Judge Pedahsur. This was initially put in place as a measure to prevent any tribe to disappear, but by the Judge Na'omi's time, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin were on the verge of disappearing due to the lack of women, and this rule was considered also to be one of the main reasons several Israelite men chose to abandon the country to live abroad and marry foreign women. She did not, however, forbid the marriage inside one's own tribal lineage.