[Avodah] Did RSRH Write LH about Shimon and Levi

[T613K at aol.com]

Intes:

From: Michael  Poppers
In Avodah Digest V25#421,  RnTK wrote:
> [Dinah's] life was ruined <
In case this hasn't yet  been noted, see Da'as Z'qeinim on 1-41:45: "...d'bas 
Dinah hay'sah miSh'chem,  v'talah lah Ya'aqov Avinu qamia' bitzkva'arah 
_v'hishlichah_..." (emphasis  mine: YA sent her [and his granddaughter/her daughter 
As'nas] away from the  family...is "banished" too harsh a word?). 

All the best  from
--Michael Poppers via RIM pager



>>>>>
I find it hard to take that medrash seriously because there is simply no  
textual support for the notion that Dinah was sent away or that she had a  
daughter or that "Asnas bas Potiphera" was really "Asnas the daughter of Dinah  and 
Shechem" or that Eishes Potiphar adopted a daughter.   It's all  based on 
what?  And explains what?
 
When Rashi quotes a medrash it is usually because the medrash answers  some 
question in the text.  IIANM Rashi does not quote this particular  medrash 
anywhere.  What Rashi does say (Ber. 39:1) is that Eishes Potiphar  saw in her 
astrology that she was destined to have children from Yosef, and she  didn't know 
if it was from her or from her daughter.
 
If her daughter wasn't even her daughter but was a foster child, Asnas bas  
Shechem veDinah, then in what possible way could it be said that a child of  
Yosef's and Asnas' would be the fulfillment of "she saw that she was destined to 
 have children from him"?  How would that child be related to Eishes  
Potiphar?
 
That medrash, whatever it means and wherever it comes from, is not pshat  and 
does not fit the pesukim at all, and as I said, Rashi makes no mention of  it.
 
(and I have it bekabala from an adam godol that it is not necessary to  
believe that every medrash is literally true)
 
 
You will also find in Ber 46:15 that Dinah is mentioned explicitly in the  
pasuk as one of the 70 family members who went down to Egypt with Yakov.   There 
is no suggestion whatsoever there that she had gone down to Egypt earlier  or 
that she had sent a child of hers down to Egypt earlier.   Now  Rashi there 
does say that she only agreed to leave the city of Shechem when her  brother 
Shimon promised to marry her.  Rashi also says (Ber 46:10) that the  "Shaul ben 
haCana'anis" mentioned among the children of Shimon was actually  Dinah's son. 
  Her son by Shechem or her son by Shimon?  Not  clear.  In any case there is 
no mention that she had a daughter, neither in  the pasuk nor in Rashi.
 


--Toby Katz
=============
"If you don't  read the newspaper you are uninformed; 
if you do read the newspaper you are  misinformed."
--Mark Twain

Read *Jewish World Review* at _http://jewishworldreview.com/_ 
(http://jewishworldreview.com/) 




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