[Avodah] Did RSRH Write LH about Shimon and Levi

[Liron Kopinsky]

I heard a drash at Sueda Shlishit today which said that there are differing
opinions about why Shimon and Levi did what they did.
1) By not setting up and enforcing a court system that punished violators of
the 7 mitzvot, they were equally culpable (Rambam I think).
1b) This seemed a bit hard to say since we in general don't punish for
negligence, but the Rav suggested maybe the obligation to set up a court
system is different.
2) They were all reshaim anyway (ovdei avoda zara etc.) so there is no need
to try and justify why they were chayav mita from the pesukum (Ramban I
think)
3) Bnei Yisrael were considered a nation at the time and not just a family
and therefore were justified in declaring war in the full sense on the city
of Shechem. It is known that in war innocent civilians are killed and that
is considered collateral damage that is not necessarily considered when
deciding when to go to war (Maharsha I think).

As an aside, the Rav also explained that the reason Yaakov chastized Shimon
and Levi was because he had thought that the plan was to just circumcise the
city and then extract Dina and wasn't expecting to have to deal with the
other local inhabitants coming to attack him and the family, but it could be
read into the pesukim that he only chastises them for the outcome of the
actions and not for the problemattic nature of the action itself.

Kol Tuv,
~Liron
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