PIKESVILLE, Maryland —In the past, I raised questions that seemed to indicate that Jacob was a very fearful man. Jacob was silent when his daughter Dinah was held by the prince of Shechem, who asked Jacob for permission to marry her. When his sons agreed on the condition that all the men of Shechem circumcise themselves, he was silent. When the men did so and were incapacitated, two of Jacob’s sons killed all the men in Shechem. Were they all guilty? Why did Jacob become furious and say he feared the allies of Shechem would seek revenge?
The questions do seem to indicate Jacob was fearful. Yet, we must realize that the Bible’s story does not reveal everything that happened. It only tells what it needs to speak to make the point it wants to make.
Unrevealed information could significantly affect our understanding of what happened. The following are some examples of what the tale does not tell us.
The Torah generally reveals little or no information about women. We are told that Jacob had a daughter named Dinah, but there is no more about her than what is shown in this drama. It does not tell us that Jacob had other daughters except in Genesis 37:35, where it states, “All his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him (Jacob),” and 46:15, where it states Leah, Jacob’s wife, bore thirty-three children with Jacob among “his sons and daughters.”
This revelation that the Torah leaves out information raises many questions about Dinah and the episode. Was she different from Jacob’s other daughters? How old was she? Was she a mature woman? Did she have a mind of her own and was uncontrollable and rebellious, a woman that Jacob could no longer control?
Why did she leave Jacob’s camp? (Rashi and others in Midrash Genesis Rabba contend she is responsible for what happened to her. She purposely stepped into a dangerous situation.) How and why did she meet the prince of Shechem? The Bible states the prince had sex with her and humbled her. Was she raped or seduced? How was she humbled? Why are we not told what she wanted? Was she only humbled, that is, degraded, in the eyes of the Torah because of how she acted and continued to act? Was she satisfied with what occurred?
Did she want to leave Jacob and live with the prince? Was Jacob silent when he heard of the incident because of understandable human conflicting emotions, his love for his daughter, and his inability to control and help her? Was he furious with his two sons who killed all the men in Shechem because it is unlikely that every one of them was complicit? (Some rabbis assert that the brothers killed all the men because they knew every one of them was involved in what occurred to their sister.) The ancients had laws and people who enforced them. What was the position of the law and police? Was there another way of handling the matter?
These questions should make us realize we need more information to decide whether Jacob and Dinah acted reasonably. We should also understand that the same questions could be asked about fables such as Little Red Riding Hood. We could start with the question: Was Little Red an innocent youngster or an adult woman seeking a sexual adventure, was she called “Red” because of her temperament, etc.?
We are only told enough to provoke a specific moral or lesson in fables and biblical accounts. This practice is as old as storytelling. The lesson in the Dina episode may be that parents cannot always control and be responsible for their children’s behavior but should do their best to teach them. And if they do all they can, they should not feel guilty when their child goes astray.
In their commentary to Judges 18:30, the rabbis tell us that even the grandson of the great lawgiver Moses became a priest for idol worship: Jonathan the priest is identified as the son of Gershom, the son of Moses. Moses was not punished for Jonathan’s deed, nor should Jacob nor us.
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Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin is a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps and is the author of more than 50 books.
