By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal
SAN DIEGO — The Torah tells us: “Now Dinah, the daughter whom Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land. Shechem, son of Hamor, the Hivite, chief of the country, saw her, and took her and lay with her by force.” (Gen. 23:1-2)
The story continues that Shechem fell in love with her and asked for her hand in marriage. Jacob’s sons told him that if he and the other members of Hamor’s clan circumcised themselves, “Then we will give our daughters to you and take your daughters to ourselves; and we will dwell among you and become as one kindred.” (Gen. 24:16)
Hamor and Shechem readily agreed and every male in their clan was circumcised. While they were healing, Jacob’s sons attacked them, killing them to avenge the rape of their sister. The actions of Jacob’s sons were reprehensible, but I will leave this topic for a later date.
The well known Biblical expositor Rashi makes a disturbing comment about Dinah: “She is called the daughter of Leah and not the daughter of Jacob because she “went out” and Leah was also a yetzanit, one who goes out.”
When Rashi calls Dinah a yetzanit he does not mean she was a tourist. Yetzanit has the connotation of being promiscuous or of loose moral values. Rashi (who was quoting the midrash) implies that Dinah got into trouble because she was looking for trouble.
Chumash Etz Hayyim observes, “Although some commentators blame her [Leah] for leaving the security of her home to consort with strangers, the modern reader will likely reject this effort to blame the victim and minimize the responsibility of the assailant. Characteristically, the narrative describes the actions of men, but never tells us what Dinah thought nor how she felt about what happened.” (p. 206)
A few days ago in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai ordered the release of a woman serving a twelve year prison sentence after she reported being raped by her husband’s cousin. Her crime? Adultery, because her attacker was married at the time. As result of the attack she bore a daughter whom she is currently raising in prison.
The release order came after international condemnation of the Afghani justice system. Prior to Karzai’s intervention, the only other way the woman would have been eligible for early release was if she agreed to marry her attacker.
Talk about blaming the victim!
Even though one would be hard pressed to find a parallel case in a non-Moslem country, there is still a tendency to blame the victim when sexual attacks are considered. How the victim dressed, where they were, what they said, and their past sexual history are not only fair game for defense attorneys, but are mulled over by the general public as well.
In Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff’s Rabbinic pastoral letter on sexual ethics, “This is My Beloved and This is My Friend,” he wrote, “Another implication of being created in the image of God is that we must respect every other human being, regardless of the extent of any given individual’s talents, beauty, intelligence, wealth, character traits, or any other factor…In every relationship one must treat other human beings as the creatures of God they are….This means, minimally, that sexual relations, if they are to adhere to Jewish concepts and values, may not be coercive.” (p.10)
Although the ancient rabbis of our tradition were very wise, they were not perfect. They should have condemned Hamor and Hamor alone, and not implied that Dinah somehow “deserved what she got.”
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Rabbi Rosenthal is spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue. He may be contacted at leonard.rosenthal@sdjewishworld.com