Eshet Chayil

A Woman of Valor

Inspired by the sinuous, bold lines of an Aubrey Beardsley Art Nouveau print, this piece reimagines the traditional "Woman of Valor."

For generations, the Eshet Chayil poem has been recited on Friday nights. It’s viewed as a praise of a woman’s endless, unseen domestic labor. But look closer at the text and you find a fierce, multilingual tycoon managing a global wine enterprise. And everything else.

What Does ‘Chayil’ Really Mean?

In English, this acrostic poem is almost always translated as A Woman of Valor. But like most translations, something gets lost.

Chayil means many things to many scholars, ranging from Nachmanides’ definition of “men who are worthy of leading,” to Boaz who saw Ruth endowed with all the “finest human qualities.”

The word also appears in contexts involving strength, prosperity, childbirth, and the fear of G-d. Its meanings stretch far beyond a single definition of “valor.”

So does this mean a woman, an eshet chayil, must be all things all the time? From warrior to worrier?

One Mitzvah Leads to Another Mitzvah

מִצְוָה גּוֹרֶרֶת מִצְוָה

There is a concept in Judaism that you don’t have to perform all 613 mitzvot to be a good person. The idea is that one mitzvah can lead to another, and then another.

Maybe Eshet Chayil can be viewed in a similar way: a woman can be many things, but she doesn’t have to be them all at once.

Jewish Art, Reimagined

This artwork explores a woman with luminous gold painted beneath the cutouts of her hair. The gold suggests what she already carries within herself: beauty, intellect, resilience, and the capacity to become more fully herself.

Eshet Chayil: Original hand-cut papercut design with acrylic gold paint embellishment.
Artwork: 12 x 12 in. / Framed: 16 x 16 in.