Portrait of Ya'el

“Ya’el is a character from Judges 4, which tells of a battle between the Israelites and the Canaanites. Ya’el invites Canaanite Sisera into her tent, covers him with a blanket, and gives him some milk to make him fall asleep. As he sleeps, she drives a tentpin through his temple. The rabbis offer a number of midrashim on the story of Ya’el and Sisera, including that her voice was irresistible, that Sisera tried to (or perhaps did) have intimacy with her seven times, and that through this act she was elevated to the status of the Sarah, Rivkah, Leah, and Rachel.”- Max Halperin, as commissioned by the artist