Yael

Yael is actually a FEMALE name from the Hebrew Ya’el (יָעֵל) meaning “mountain goat”, specifically the Nubian ibex which is a species of goats found in the mountainous regions of Israel. The name is rendered as Jael in Biblical form with Yael being the ancient Hebrew version. It was borne by a woman who becomes an unlikely heroine in the Book of Judges; the one who Deborah prophesizes will receive the “glory for delivering Israel”. But let’s back up for a second. In the time of Deborah (c. 12th century B.C.) the Israelites were being cruelly subjugated by the Canaanite army under the command of Sisera. Judge Deborah calls upon Barak, the Israeli military general, to rise up against Sisera. Barak agrees but only if Deborah, a deft military leader herself, will accompany him into battle. “And [Deborah] said, ‘I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory; for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman’” (Judges 4:9). Enter Yael. After Barak and Deborah completely destroy the Canaanite army, Sisera is the only man alive. A fugitive on the run, Sisera enters the tent of Yael, wife of Heber the Kenite, belonging to a non-Canaan/non-Israeli neutral tribe. Thinking himself safe after Yael serves him milk and invites him to rest, Sisera falls asleep. The next scene is a little gory, so consider yourself forewarned. “Jael…took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand. Then she went softly to [Sisera] and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground…So he died” (Judges 4:21). So a woman saves the day just as Deborah promised. Not surprisingly Yael is a Top 10 favorite name for Jewish girls in Israel. Yet oddly enough, Yael is mainly being used as a masculine name in the United States. Perhaps Americans haven’t read their Bibles lately.