Vayishlach: A family of con artists benefits from a rape

Avraham Avinu/Abraham our Father twice passes off Sarah Iménu/Sarah our Mother as his sister for fear that the locals will kill him to take her, and is rewarded with “compensation” for any possible damage to his “property” (wife). Yitzchak/Isaac does likewise with Rivka/Rebecca. Yaakov/Jacob first cons his brother Esav/Esau out of his birthright, then he and his mother, Rivka, conspire together and deprive Esav of the blessing of the firstborn. Yaakov pays for his deviousness when Lavan/Laban substitutes Léah for his beloved Rachel at their wedding. Then Yaakov pulls a switcheroo on Lavan, depriving him of his most productive livestock through good husbandry practices and what sounds like some interesting hocus-pocus. Finally, Yaakov returns to K’na-an/Canaan, where he has to face the possible wrath and revenge of his brother, Esav. That doesn’t go as badly as expected, but . . .

Dinah is raped. (There’s a Midrash/rabbinical interpretive story that says that Dinah was raped because Yaakov hid her from Esav, as he didn’t want his brother getting any “ideas.” Terrific—Yaakov makes the wrong decision and his daughter pays the price.) Her brothers Shim’on/Simon and Levi avenge her rape by conning the entire community of Shechem, her rapist, into becoming circumcised so that they can intermarry, then slaughtering all the men while they are still recuperating. My rabbi says that they had to slaughter all the men in order to prevent a cycle of revenge. But isn’t it a bit too convenient that, yet again, the family benefits from a woman’s difficult situation, in this case taking with them all the women, children, and spoils?

There are still far too many questions unanswered. Was the massacre a hostage rescue, or did Dinah stay in Shechem’s home voluntarily? In terms of historical context, it's instructive to check out Megillat Rute/the Book of Ruth—with her husband and sons all dead, Naomi might have starved to death if Ruth hadn’t, essentially, volunteered to take care of her; Naomi, in turn, set up a “shotgun wedding” between Ruth and Boaz to ensure that Ruth would have someone to take care of her. In those days, would there have been any possibility that any other man would have taken Dinah as a wife, given that she was no longer a virgin, or would she have preferred to stay with Shechem so that she would have a husband to support her and children to care for her in her old age?

Sorry, guys, but the story of the rape of Dinah simply cries out for “kol isha,” a woman’s voice. For me, as a committed Jewish woman, this is one of the most difficult texts in the Torah/Bible, not only because Dinah was raped, but, even worse, because, while we know how her father and brothers felt, we have no idea how she felt (or, for that matter, how her mother felt), nor do we know what, ultimately, became of her. Unfortunately, we can only speculate, because the voice of this woman named Dinah was silenced.