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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>From: "Liron Kopinsky" <liron.kopinsky@gmail.com><BR>I heard a
drash at Sueda Shlishit today which said that there are differing<BR>opinions
about why Shimon and Levi did what they did.<BR>1) By not setting up and
enforcing a court system that punished violators of<BR>the 7 mitzvot, they were
equally culpable (Rambam I think).....<BR><BR>Kol
Tuv,<BR>~Liron<BR></FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV>>>>>>><BR>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. It certainly seems that the whole city was
in cahoots in allowing their prince to treat her this way and not demanding that
she be immediately released. Certainly Shechem's father seems to have had
no compunctions about what his son did -- he didn't say to his son, "You
horrible beastly boy, what have you done?! Let her go this instant!"
Instead he was an enabler of a horrible crime and said, "You want to keep her my
boy? Fine, I'll go talk to her father and make sure there that you get to
keep her with no repercussions." That Shechem was the ultimate spoiled
brat -- gets to kidnap and rape a young girl and his father aids and abets the
crime!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>All the negotiations that followed were basically phony -- compare how
Chamor and Shechem speak to Yakov and his sons, with phony respect, with how
they speak to their own townspeople. Yakov's sons said, "We will give our
daughters to you and we will take your daughters for ourselves" -- with
Yakov and his sons being the agents who decide, who give and take according to
their will -- and Shechem and his father agreed (seemingly). But when they
went back to their townspeople to persuade them to go along with the
condition set -- circumcision -- they didn't say, "Yakov will give us his
daughters and take our daughters" -- instead they said, "WE WILL
TAKE their daughters for wives and WE WILL GIVE them our
daughters" -- making the Shechemites, not the Yakobites, the boss -- and even
more significant was what they added: "Their cattle and their property and their
animals will be ours." It seems they were plotting against Yakov and his
sons all along, trying to string them along with promises that they would
circumcise themselves and agree to whatever the Yakovites would demand, while
really planning to take control and seize everything from the Yakov and his
sons, their women and their property. The whole town in cahoots,
remember.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>What upset Yakov wasn't "How could you do so something so violent and
disgusting and immoral as to kill innocent people?" but "You've made me look bad
in the eyes of the locals, you acted hastily and impetuously without considering
the long-term consequences -- all the surrounding cities are likely to gang up
against me now, now that they see what my sons did to Shechem -- and I am too
weak and small to go to war with an entire nation, it isn't time yet, we can't
go to war with the people of Canaan until a couple more centuries have passed
and our population has multiplied." In the event Hashem evidently
protected B'Y, and Yakov's fears did not materialize -- the people of the land
did not retaliate for the destruction of Shechem but left Yakov and his sons in
peace.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>A possible counter argument is that on his deathbed, Yakov was highly
critical of Shimon and Levi and apparently accused them of murder -- "be'apam
hargu ish." It seems that Yakov thought they should have behaved
differently and should have found a way to save their sister without resorting
to violence. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>BTW R' Yitzchok Levine started this thread by asking whether RSRH "spoke
loshon hora about Shimon and Levi" when he wrote that they adopted the methods
of Esav, but if you look at Rashi on Ber. 49:5 you will see that Hirsch was
closely following Rashi, who says there about Shimon and Levi, "Umanus zo shel
retzicha chamas hu veyedeihem, mibirkas Esav hi zo, umanus shelo hi." --
"This business of killing people is stolen from Esav, that is Esav's type
of business." You could say Rashi was speaking L'H about Shimon and Levi
but then you would have to say that Chazal were speaking L'H about them and
maybe the Torah itself was speaking L'H in recording Yakov's deathbed
words!</DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><B><BR></B><BR><B>--Toby Katz<BR>=============<BR></B>Read *Jewish
World Review* at <A
href="http://jewishworldreview.com/">http://jewishworldreview.com/</A><BR><BR></FONT><FONT
lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><B><BR><BR>--------------------------</B></FONT></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV CLASS="aol_ad_footer" ID="cecfa00613310e269e7eeaba64c8b9cd"><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">Make your life easier with all your friends, email, and favorite sites in one place. <a href="http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000010">Try it now</a>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>