Jacob and his family proceeded to the city of Shechem. Jacob’s daughter Dinah went out to meet the women of Shechem and was abducted and violated by the king of Shechem’s son, who then offered to pay any dowry that Jacob would demand in order to marry her. He suggested further that his and Jacob’s clans intermarry. Jacob’s sons replied that the citizens of Shechem would first have to circumcise themselves, to which they readily agreed. When they were recovering from their circumcision, Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi raided the city, killed all the males, and rescued Dinah.
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וַתֵּצֵא דִינָה . . . לִרְאוֹת בִּבְנוֹת הָאָרֶץ: (בראשית לד:א)
Dinah went out to observe the girls of the region. Genesis 34:1

Dinah’s intention was to convince the women of Shechem to adopt the righteous ways of Jacob’s family. Although it appears that she was hardly successful, her efforts were not entirely in vain. Although having the residents of Shechem circumcise themselves was partly a ruse to weaken them, their assent indicated that they agreed to be spiritually refined to a certain degree. Their circumcision refined their society somewhat, including the women. And indeed, the women and children were taken captive, most of them becoming servants in Jacob’s household and thereby absorbing Jacob’s values and morals.

Dinah’s behavior teaches us that women who are blessed with unique talents that enable them to influence others should utilize those talents not just to build their home and family; they should also use them to draw the hearts of their fellow women to the Torah and its ways of goodness and kindness.1