[Avodah] Did RSRH Write LH about Shimon and Levi

[Yitzhak Grossman]

On Mon, 15 Dec 2008 02:00:08 EST
T613K at aol.com wrote:

...

> AFTER Shimon and Levi killed the inhabitants of  Shechem, they took Dinah and 
> left -- IOW she was being held hostage the whole  time!  All those 
> negotiations about how Shechem loved her and wanted to  marry her and all the rest of it 
> -- were all being carried out in a hostage  situation, with Dinah already 
> having been violated in a horrible way (see Rashi)  and still being held captive. 

...

> Shechem was the ultimate spoiled  brat -- gets to kidnap and rape a young 
> girl and his father aids and abets the  crime!

RnTK takes for granted that Dinah was kidnapped and raped, but there is
actually no textual basis for these assumptions.  There is no clear
indication that any force was involved; the word 'va'ye'a'neha is
problematic, but it is far from clear that it implies force - see, e.g.,
the remarks of Rashi, Ibn Ezra and Ramban.  I have long noted that the
Torah's strikingly patriarchal narrative gives us the perspectives of
Ya'akov, his sons, and Shechem, but it is remarkably silent about
Dinah herself thought and felt during and about the entire episode, and
even about the fundamental question of whether she was seduced or raped
by Shechem.  The Torah mentions that after the initial incident,
"va'ye'daber al lev ha'na'ara" - but we are completely left in the dark
as to Dinah's response!

I had never actually known of any commentator that maintained
seduction, until this past Leil Shabbos, when I attended a talk by an
erudite Rav who mentioned this Medrash, which my father located for me
(Koheles Rabbah 10:8 [10:10]):

"Va'yikah osah, he seduced her [pitah osah] with words, as it is said
"kehu imachem devarim".  Ya'yishkav osah, be'derech erez.
Va'ye'a'neha, be'mishkav zachur."

Rav M. M. Kasher mentions this Medrash, and a couple of similar
Medrashim (Torah Sheleimah Bereishis 34:2 #8 and n. 8):

"Ein 'Kah' ela lashon pitui, ... and as it says regarding Dinah ... that
she was unwilling and they were seducing ("me'fatin") her."

"She'paisah be'devarim"

[The Rav did mention other Medrashic sources that indicate rape.]

> --Toby Katz

Yitzhak
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