Parashat Vayishlach, 5774/2013 edition

Basics here.

Old thought, now being reconsidered, from Parshat Vayishlach--old and new thoughts (Saturday, December 10, 2011):

"When Avraham's nephew Lot was captured, Avraham sent an army to free him.  When Yaakov's daughter Dina was raped and abducted, Yaakov did . . . nothing, and then complained that his sons had taken matters into their own hands in a manner that endangered him.  Yaakov doesn't come out of this story looking particularly good.  :("

New thought:  How big a “household” did Yaakov have at the time of Dina’s rape (or seduction, depending on your point of view)?  Could he have mounted an armed attack to rescue Dina, or did he really not have enough adults in his camp to serve as an army?

Some of my old posts (and/or the comments thereto) aren’t bad.  Last year’s post includes a nice collection of links to my previous ones.

Speaking of old posts, I should have posted this excerpt this week, instead of last:

Midrash madness (Sunday, December 06, 2009)

“I'd also be curious to know whether it occurred to any of the midrash-writers that Esav actually had a perfectly legitimate reason to bring 400 (presumably armed) men with him to his reunion with Yaakov/Jacob: Yaakov had already taken Esav's birthright and blessing, so why should Esav have trusted him not to come back for more?”

• DovBear hosts a guest post by Y. Bloch:  Dinah wasn't raped, Tamar was
• Conservadox rolls his eyes at Scharfstein’s interpretation, and concludes that "to be truly successful, religion should be to some extent the opiate of the masses."