Giving Voice to Dinah

“That's in the Bible?!” No way! But . . . it's. . . so . . . well. . . . scandalous!

This sentence of surprise can be heard when reading many selections of biblical text. This week's selection, from Parashat Vayishlach, is no different.

The story, known commonly of the rape of Dinah, is shocking. A few minutes ago, I read from the introduction of the story. Let me summarize the entire drama:

Dinah goes out to visit her sisters in the land. Along the way, she encounters Shechem, who has intercourse with her. He then speaks tenderly to her, and falls in love with her. Shechem asks his father Hamor to get Dinah for him as a wife. Meanwhile, Jacob had heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter and was distressed, but as his sons were in the field, he decided to wait for them to come home before taking action.

Hamor comes to speak with Jacob to ask for Dinah's bride price. At this time, Dinah's brothers return home from the field. They were angry and distressed, for Shechem had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Dinah. Jacob's sons refused to give Dinah to Shehem, because they were not circumcised. On the condition that all of Hamor's men become circumcised, could Dinah become Shechem's wife. Shechem immediately became circumcised, and shortly after that, all the men in the town also did the deed.

On the third day after their circumcision, when they were in the most pain, Simeon and Levi took their swords and went to the town. They killed all the men while they were unable to defend themselves. They seized the women, children and the property of Hamor and his men, and also took Dinah from Shechem's home. When Jacob heard what they had done, he said, “ You have brought trouble upon me, making me odious among the inhabitants of the land”. Simeon and Levi responded: “Should ours sister be treated like a whore?”

And the story of the rape Dinah ends. Dinah is never mentioned again in Biblical text. And yet-the ultimate irony-this story that is to be about Dinah has no voice at all. Dinah does not speak. Dinah's wants, desires, fears, joy are unknown to us.

As contemporary Jews, we struggle with an ancient text in order to bring it to life, to allow Torah to guide us through our life's journey. There are many, many times that the text leaves us wanting more-struggling to understand the meaning and the message of the text.

The case of Dinah is just such an example. For this passage leaves us struggling to understand Simeon and Levi's cruelty-- their apparent total disregard of the power of circumcision to bring men into covenant with God. We also are baffled by Jacob's weak reprimand to Simeon and Levi.

Also of concern is the story of Dinah. Tonight, we will attempt to give voice to Dinah-to create a persona and character that was left out of the text. As Anita Diamant writes in her prologue to The Red Tent, “Nothing remains except a few mangled details about those weeks in Shechem.” Trying to unravel the story from a few mangled details, is at best, educated guesswork. Through midrash and commentary, our sages and scholars creatively and carefully wove together text, research, and opinion to construct meaning and message. Giving voice to Dinah, in modern times continues this ancient and holy tradition.

Giving voice to Biblical women has become much easier to do in recent decades. As women discovered new roles, becoming biblical scholars, rabbis, congregational presidents, having voices from ancient women became necessary. Women, originally shut out from texts, wanted to find themselves; find their traditions, their rituals; their ancestors.

And so the studies began-women and men joining together, to give voices to the women whom the text muted for so long.

And today this task is still burning. Offering voices not only to biblical women, but women from midrashic times, from medieval times-reclaiming their spirit and their lessons-is indeed holy work.

With Dinah, the work has begun. Anita Diamant, author of the critically acclaimed and wildly successful book The Red Tent, wove a magnificent story of Dinah and her family. Jonathan Kirsch, author of The Harlot By The Side of The Road, unpacks biblical texts of shocking nature, including Dinah in his accounts. And, women who love to write-but may or may not ever publish-attempt to find Dinah's personality.

Our own member, Ruth Friedberg, sent me a poem she authored when she heard of this sermon. An excerpt reads:

My brothers speak of honor,
Theirs, not mine.
And they write their words
In the blood
Of a man who cherished me.

I speak of nothing,
Listening to the wind
Blow round my tent
As the sun sets red
Over Shechem.

Dinah's voice deserves to be heard, and, thanks to the times we live in, we have the opportunity to bring the text to life and allow Dinah to breathe again, as Ruth did in her beautiful work.

I'd like to unpack the story of Dinah a little bit more, and see if we, tonight, can continue the magnificent work begun already, especially by Jonathan Kirsch, lawyer and biblical critic. For this study, we begin by focusing on one word-the word that to the title of Dinah's story as “The Rape of Dinah”. That word, in hebrew, is “Vaya-neha”. Most often translated intense words: by force, abused, defiled, humbled, or dishonored, Jonathon Kirsch writes that these words indicated a “degrading and debasing experience by which a girl loses the expectancy of a fully valid marriage mostly because she is no longer a virgin”. (Kirsch, 78) Some scholars attempt to even translate this difficult verb more forcefully, such as Ita Sheres, who translates “ he tortured her”.

Importantly, the word rape is a more modern label. None of the biblical translations use this word, but most commentators insist that no other meaning can be gleaned, because of the force of the three layers of action: He took her, he lay with her and he humbled her.”

However, as Jonathan Kirsch teaches, the next sentences states that Shechem falls madly in love with Dinah! The words are “he cleaved unto Dinah and her loved the young woman, and spoke from his heart to her.”

In fact, when Jacob heard the story of Dinah and Shechem, he uses the word “defiled”. Again, Jonathan Kirsch teaches, “the word defiled is used elsewhere in the Bible to describe forbidden sexual relations rather than forcible ones.” (79)

Is this a story of a rape or a secretive courtship?

The debate rages for the answers are unclear. I propose-perhaps because I am a romantic-that this was a story of an illicit love affair gone terribly wrong. Besides the competing texts between love and rape, we must look also to the whereabouts of Dinah. Where is she after Shechem lays with her? We learn at the very end of the story that she was in Shechem's house! Was she there by force-or setting up a love nest?

Ita Sheres says that Shechem “recognizes Dinah as a person of value”. In addition an ancient rabbi believed that Simeon and Levi had to drag Dinah from Shechem's home. We may “be tempted to speculate that the two of them -young, unwed, and crucially, each from a different tribe-have fallen so deeply in love with each other they dare to engage in some kind of sexual encounter.” ( 81)

It is possible, also, to look at this angle from a critical, not just a romantic, eye. Because of the implications of both-rape and love-that the texts are from two different sources. We can argue that the rape of Dinah was inserted later, to castigate any who would wish to marry a non-Israelite, and to denigrate the name of Shechem, he is reduced to rapist. In other words, the lore that was passed down of the depth of Shechem's love for Dinah, was turned into a story of “star-crossed lovers”, whose story must be changed to ensure that intermarriage, and belief in others gods, did not continue. (82)

Anita Diamant writes, too, of the boundless love that Dinah had for Shechem, and the pain she suffered when her brothers killed him and forced her home again. Anita Diamant uses the long silent voice of Dinah to tell the story not only of Dinah, but of the other women in her life as well, effectively, emotionally, giving voice to many women. As she writes, in Dinah's lilting voice, “. . . But the other reason women wanted daughters was to keep their memories alive” (3)

Attempting to unpack Dinah's story allows us entrée into her character, love and loss. From Jonathan Kirsh and Anita Diamant, as well as others, we give Dinah's story a voice. Finding the voice in the text brings the Torah to life again and again; allowing us to continually find new meaning and message. As Rabbi Ben Bag Bag taught-turn it over and over, for it is all inside.

As contemporary Jews-women and men-we must continue to give the voices of the women that shaped our traditions voices, so that their stories may shine through. With their stories our tradition will be enriched and we will be able to offer voices to the many silent voices in our tradition.

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