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<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>Intes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2><TT><B>From: </B></TT><TT>Michael
Poppers</TT><BR><TT><B> </B></TT>In Avodah Digest V25#421,
RnTK wrote:<BR>> [Dinah's] life was ruined <<BR>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?). <BR><BR>All the best
from<BR>--Michael Poppers via RIM pager<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV>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?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>(and I have it bekabala from an adam godol that it is not necessary to
believe that every medrash is literally true)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </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>"If you don't
read the newspaper you are uninformed; <BR>if you do read the newspaper you are
misinformed."<BR>--Mark Twain<BR><BR><B>Read *Jewish World Review* at <A
href="http://jewishworldreview.com/">http://jewishworldreview.com/</A></B></B><BR><BR></FONT><FONT
lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><B><BR><BR>--------------------------</FONT></B></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV CLASS="aol_ad_footer" ID="6be80a6343f6d9a79e4cecadcb397872"><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">One site keeps you connected to all your email: AOL Mail, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. <a href="http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000025">Try it now</a>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>