Devar/5770/Vayeshev
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< Devar | 5770
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And Shechem spoke unto his father Hamor, saying: 'Get me this damsel to wife.' (Gen 34:4)
After Shechem kidnapped Dina, Yaakov's daughter and raped her -- he fell in love with her and asked his father to get him "this damsel" as a wife. Shimon and Levi reacted forcefully, and killed all the males in the city of Shechem. When Yaakov rebuked them for what they had done, saying Ye have troubled me, to make me odious unto the inhabitants of the land (ibid 30), the brothers answered him in short: Should one deal with our sister as with a harlot? (ibid 31)
Perhaps there is no more direct way to demonstrate the fundamental difference in world views: between that of the Torah and that of the nations who surround us (then as well as now). In their eyes, everything and everyone is an object, owned by someone. Do you want a wife? Go, take one -- even by means of rape, since in any case she is only an object. You deserve it! And so they said in this week's portion: Shall not their cattle and their substance and all their beasts be ours? (ibid 23) -- even as they were entering into a "peace agreement" with the Children of Israel, they did it in order to take away all their possessions.
On the contrary, the Torah commands us that a woman may not be "taken" except by her own volition: A woman may only be married of her own volition; and one who "marries" a woman against her will, that woman is not married. (Laws of Women 4:1). Despite her being "acquired" by her husband -- she is not an object, rather a human being with a soul and a will -- and her husband must listen to her and not force her. And should it happen she be raped as Dina was, she is not punished in any way: A person who was forced against his will is exempt from any punishment -- from stripes, from bringing an offering, and needless to say, from a death penalty (Laws of Forbidden Relationships 1:8). And in contrast, the nations who surround us kill any woman who was raped, because of their distorted sense of "honor". Blessed is the God of Israel, Who did not make us like these nations!
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