34:1 Now Dina, the daughter whom Leah had borne to Jacob went out to visit the daughters of the land.
Dina, one sister among 12 brothers, identified here as the daughter of Leah, went to seek out the women of the land – not looking for men, but looking to be among other women.
In Irena Klepfisz and Melanie Kaye/Kanrowitz The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology, they ask, “What did she want? Did she ever speak to the women? Did they gather secretly? Did she long for sisters, for daughters to gather a Tribe of Dina? The Bible has no answers, no hints.”
34:2 Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite, chief of the country, saw her, and took her and lay with her by force.
In The Red Tent, Anita Diamant explores the idea that Dina was in love with Shechem and that her brothers executed an awful wrong upon her. While Diamant’s imagining of the ancient world is engrossing and her sympathy with her heroine is genuine, the Biblical account is clearly different.
Shechem, was son of a powerful man – the chief of the country – a man who was used to getting whatever he wanted. He saw her – did he even speak to her? – he took her – did he ask her? – and he lay with her by force. This appears to be a frank account of rape in the Torah and one which never seeks to lay the blame for the incident upon the victim.
34:3 Being strongly drawn to Dina daughter of Jacob, and in love with the maiden, he spoke to the maiden tenderly.
Shechem was drawn to Dina and in love with her – was he in love with her before he lay with her by force or afterwards? Why is it important that she is now described as the daughter of Jacob and not the daughter of Leah – this is written from Shechem’s point of view. Did a woman’s will count?
After seeing their sister “defiled,” the brothers convince Shechem, Hamor and all the males from the town to circumcise themselves – promising to hand over Dina to Shechem once they do.
34:25 On the third day, while they were in pain, Simeon and Levi, two of Jacob’s sons, brothers of Dina, took each his sword, came upon the city unmolested, and slew all the males.
In Ellen Frankel’s, The Five Books of Miriam: A Woman’s Commentary on the Torah, Dina notes, “[my brother’s] recognized that honor stolen can never be recouped. Hamor’s proposed payment transformed rape into prostitution. The only compensation they [Simeon and Levi] would accept was vengeance. But neither act could compensate me for what I had lost.”
In “What Dina Thought,” Deena Metzger explores the life of Dina Z., a Jewish-American filmmaker who falls in love with Jamine, a Palestinian activist for whom she gowns herself in a Bedouin wedding dress in a bazaar. This Dina intimately relives the Biblical Dinah's tragedy, and names her daughter Asenath.
The frustration and anger that’s brought forth by modern female writers is understandable. Long passages are granted to each son and their descendants. We never learn what Dina thinks or feels and she’s only mentioned one more time after the episode that came to define her.
But there are a number of important lessons we can learn from this parsha. We are taught, “All you need is love. Love is a many splendored thing. Love makes the world go ‘round.”
Unfortunately, that’s only true for love you give, but not for love you “take.” The taking of love that’s not offered to be given is a crime.
The first love we learn about two kinds of unconditional love: first, between Abraham and Isaac, a father and son and second, between Rebecca and Isaac, a wife and her husband.
We then learn about two kinds of competitive love – first, between parents and children (Isaac loves Esau but Rebecca loves Jacob) and second, between husbands and wives (Jacob loves Rachel more than Leah).
As a result of the competition, Jacob and Esau are estranged and only now, at the beginning of this parsha, do the two find a way to live with each other. Leah is patient and one comes to believe that the love between her and her husband grew over time.
Shechem’s is the third kind of love we learn of between people. One in which one party loves and the other does not. Even if the text were reversed; allowing that Shechem may have been in love with Dina before he attacked her, his actions are still clearly inappropriate.
What about Dina’s brother’s actions? As Phyllis Chesler points out in her essay, “The Rape of Dina: On the Torah Portion of Vayishlach”, we have to “pursue those who ‘buy’ women’s bodies – those, who, like Dina, have been kidnapped, tricked, held against their will in brothels, and also those who have been ‘trafficked’ into prostitution, incest, poverty, and racism, and by male lust and greed. And we have an obligation to bring up our children so they do not rape, and if raped, do not blame themselves. In turn, we must not blame or ostracize rape victims. In Dina’s story, her brothers do not blame her. They rescue her.
On Wednesday, there was an article in the Jerusalem post about a rape. A 72-year-old mother and grandmother who moved to Israel 2 years ago from the US was attacked in broad daylight, in her own home, by the man she’d hired to fix her refrigerator.
"He'd come to fix my fridge," begins Zahava, who after seven months of intensive therapy is now strong enough to speak out about what happened to her and, it turns out, to several other English-speaking women in her neighborhood. "I wrote out the check, opened the front door for him to leave and all of a sudden he grabbed me and started kissing me. I said, 'What are you doing? I'm old enough to be your mother!' but he didn't stop. Then I froze, and every trauma that had ever happened in my life came back up to the surface."
Not being able to move on with her life, Zahava went to her family doctor, who urged her to confront her attacker about what had happened. She even told Zahava that perhaps she had her facts wrong because the man had, after all, been in an elite army unit.
There is a Dina in this story too – Dina Maron of the Crime Victims Department. She is quoted as saying that, “most rapes or sexual attacks are perpetrated by a person known to the victim, that could be a family member, friend, a work colleague or a neighbor.”
But judgment in rape cases is very hard to come by – often it comes down to two stories from two different people. Zahava doesn’t have any evidence; and her case is still winding its way through the judicial system.
Maybe that’s why Jacob’s daughter is named Dina, “judgment”. In this story, commentators take on the view of all involved – finding one or another sympathetic. In Vayikra we’re instructed as follows:
19:15 “You shall not render an unfair decision: do not favor the poor or show deference to the rich…”
Shechem was a man of influence. Dina was a lonely woman wandering in a strange land. And, despite the fact that she largely leaves the stage of the Torah after this horrible incident, we remember her every time we call ourselves Jews.
In Vayechi, Jacob blesses his sons but the three first-born sons, the ones who would normally inherit their fathers mantle, are chastised. Jacob tells Reuben that he will “excel no longer; for when you mounted your father’s bed, you brought disgrace – my couch he mounted!”
As for Simeon and Levi, he said, they “are a pair; their weapons are tools of lawlessness….For when angry, they slay men, and when pleased they maim oxen…I will divide them in Jacob, scatter them in Israel.
It is to the fourth born son, Judah, who he says, “tribute shall come to him and the homage of peoples be his.
We are called Jews because we are of the tribe of Judah. If it wasn’t for the actions of Simeon and Levi and what they did for Dina, we may be called something different. Thus, whenever we consider ourselves and our heritage, our name is there to remind us of Dina, what happened to her and our responsibility to judge and be judged fairly. And to give love often but be careful about taking it.