Rabbi's Sermons

Shabbat shalom!

In Genesis 34 we read: "¹ And Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she bore unto Yaacov, went out to see the daughters of the land". Thus begins the tragedy of this week's portion, Parashat Vayishlach. From this verse a genocide was born. From this declaration the identity of a tribe in Israel, the tribe of Dinah, was erased, from this opening a national-ethnic rivalry began, seemingly eternal to this day. What is it about this apparently simple verse that has so much pain and suffering implicated?

Let's analyze the verse that opens the story: "And Dinah went out" - why did she go out? Why didn't she stay in Yaacov’s tents? Why did she give up the security of her home? The tragedy began with the independent departure of the only daughter. If we compare it with the Eshet Chayil - the ideal woman, described in the book of Proverbs 31, the many virtues are related to a woman who is within limits and her traditional roles at home. But Dinah was not like that, she broke boundaries, she was an extroverted woman. She went out "to see" and this visit ended in disaster. But why did Dinah leave? The Talmud in Berachot 60a tries to explain it from her birth in Genesis 30: "¹ And afterwards she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah" why does it say "and afterwards"? Rab says: “After, Leah thought: 'Twelve tribes are going to be from Yaacov, six I have already given birth and four come from the servants, if this (pregnancy) comes out as a man, my sister Rachel will not be like one of the servants' (she would have less than them) and then it became a girl”. According to this Midrash, Dinah was supposed to be a boy. And from here they try to explain her manly and independent attitude of "leaving alone" into the unknown.

In fact, Dinah is not even called the daughter of “Leah and Yaacov”, much less “daughter of Yaacov” as were her brothers, but was referred as "Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she bore unto Yaacov". Rashi tries to reconcile the text, stating that “as the daughter, was the mother”. Because it is also written in Genesis 30 that "¹⁶ Leah went out to Yaacov" with the sole intention of openly asking him for marital relations. Dinah, too, did not go out to help with her father's flock, or to help her brothers, as Rachel did at the time, but instead she went out “to see the daughters of the land” with the girls from Shchem. Was it a kind of rebellion? Or perhaps she was innocent, and the curiosity of a meeting between cultures and beliefs, turned out to be very dangerous. Dinah was a beautiful young woman, and from here the situation lost control when "Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her, and defiled her". This verse was used by many generations of rabbis who in a threatening way raised it very high to demonstrate the punishment that Dinah received, and therefore, none of the young women of Israel, should leave beyond the confinement of the home, much less to know other cultures… which we may remember reflected, by the way, with Chavale, in the film “The Fiddler on the Roof”.

But was Dinah really dishonored? Because Dinah did not say ANYTHING back at home... In fact, it is Shechem himself, the prince in love who "speaks to the heart of Dinah" and asked for help from his father, King Chamor, to formally and with all due respect, ask for her hand in marriage. Let us remember that Dinah actually remained with Shechem… so this doesn't look like a rape at all! And if it had been a rape, why did Yaacov remained silence? Perhaps the real threat came from the King when he said: “will we give our daughters unto you; and we will take your daughters to us” we will become one big and happy family! Shimon and Levy, however had other plans, deceiving the men of the city of Shchem, asking them to be circumcised so that three days later, at the weakest moment, they would be easy prey to be slaughtered by sword. They took Dinah, back home from the palace of Shechem, and only then, after this terrible act of revenge, Yaacov said: “Ye have troubled me to make me a stench among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. And my men being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, me and my house”. Sadly we read that his daughter Dinah was not even mentioned… and thus, the tragic story of her life ended. From this silence, we will never know what Dinah really wanted, or what she asked for, or what went through her mind, when she was kidnapped back to her father's house, through a city full of corpses during the massacre perpetrated by her brothers. We will not know what her life was like, which her destiny was, she simply disappeared from the biblical landscape and is mentioned again only in the list of those who descend to Egypt on Genesis Ch. 46. The biblical story did not give her a voice, she is simply "¹⁵ Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she bore unto Yaacov", or the "young woman", "the girl", "the sister"... but never as Dinah. Dinah has no inheritance compared to her eleven siblings, there is no tribe named after her or land in the Land of Israel, generations of commentators used her story to scare and shape the consciences of the daughters of Israel, and they left us with the terror of a girl who was perhaps desecrated but surely forgotten. Only the Midrash of Pirkei by Rabbi Eliezer Ch. 38, tries to rescue the memory of Dinah and tells us that “Dinah became pregnant and gave birth to Osnat. And the children of Israel wanted to kill the girl, so that they would not say that there is lewdness in Yaacov's tents. What did Yaacov do? He brought a wood and wrote on it the name of the Holy Blessed be He, and hung it around her neck and sent her and she left. And the Holy One, blessed be He, sent the angel Michael to accompany her and took her to Egypt, to Potiphar's house, and she would become a worthy wife for Yosef, since Potiphar's wife was sterile and he adopted her as his daughter”. As is well known, from the seed of Yosef there were not one, but two tribes and perhaps we can read in this Midrash, a way of doing justice and representing the silent Dinah who dared to go out and seek a new connection with other people.

In the broader context of inter-religious and cultural ties, Judaism is an ethnic religion. And even though people can choose to join it through conversion, most Jews are born to the people of Israel. Perhaps because of this, the cross-cultural ties that can lead to intermarriage have always been perceived as highly problematic. Today many view with concern at the growing proportion of Jews who have mixed marriages and do not establish Jewish families. I also share this concern. But I definitely do not believe that a person can be deprived of the right to enter into marital relations with whoever they want and whenever they want, the way Dinah sought. Perhaps dangers exist in cultural and religious ties and in intercultural relationships, but I also believe that there exists a possibility and huge potential to enrich and grow the number of people who approach the Jewish people. I sincerely admit that if I had to choose between the cultural distancing and current isolation between Judaism and other peoples, or the danger that comes from having friendships and brotherhoods between peoples, I would surely prefer the latter with a great pleasure

Shabat Shalom!

Rabbi David Laor

December 5^th 2025