Jesse Caron
Antioch, Tennessee, U.S.A.
Inquiry: Pâqid Yirmәyâhu, ha-Tzadiq,

This week, thanks to the Netzarim Parasha commentary, I was left without a shadow of doubt that Ya'akov's nighttime struggle and victory in no way involved a supernatural/superhuman being.

I also learned that the slaughter by Levi and Shimon of the people of Sh'chem and his father Khamor, while deemed problematic by their father Ya'akov, was not a work of treachery. It was rather a response to the true motives of the people of the violator of their sister. What may seem a lingering challenge to such a clear-cut view of the situation, is Sh'chem's apparently sincere desire to treat Dinah as an otherwise honorably courted bride.

I'm inclined to think that Sh'chem's desire for Dinah was simply to be expected (not certainly that he should have done any less), since she was raised to be a delight to her husband, her household, and her people. Being impressed and enamored with her in no way justified him in light of his actions, and the obvious intent of his people to absorb Yisrael - rather than be converted, was a matter that may have been impossible to deal with diplomatically. Put simply, he could have been more forwardly vocal against the subtle reasonings of his people for accepting the agreement of circumcision, and his sincere love for Dinah was an unfortunate casualty of that passivity.

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There has been considerable discussion of this pâ•râsh•âhꞋ  among the Sages. A synopsis can be found in the second volume of Artscroll "Bereshis." Inter alia, the question of conversion is raised here, as well as a vindictive massacre of uninvolved, innocent (?) civilians.

One significant question emerges from 34.2: Sh^әkhëmꞋ  "saw her, took her, lay with her וַיְעַנֶּהָ."

The Sages opine that the reason Ya•a•qovꞋ  was angry with Shim•onꞋ  and Leiw•iꞋ  was because they went beyond גְּאֻלָּה, which was limited to Sh^әkhëmꞋ , and massacred the entire village. It turns out (34.25) that these two, alone, committed the atrocity. The other brothers took in, looked after and absorbed the surviving victims and their belongings. The text implies, through Ya•a•qovꞋ 's anger at, and disapproval of, the two guilty sons, that he and the other 10 sons had been sincere in their offer to permit conversion and absorb them as family. In that era, consensual fornication (though this case wasn't consensual) was, after all, regarded as a marriage throughout most of the Middle East. According to Middle Eastern criteria of that era, marriage would have been understood by all of the parties–except Shim•onꞋ  and Leiw•iꞋ –as a suitable, appropriate, even honorable, solution. It was likely Sh^әkhëmꞋ 's fearful (of reprisal) abandonment of Din•âhꞋ , rather than a proper first path to conversion and marriage (instead of flight, which humiliated their abandoned sister), that, properly, incensed the brothers.