Could Dinah Have Made Esau Repent?

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Could Dinah Have Made Esau Repent?: From Likutei Sichos - Vayishlach

Jacob hid his daughter from the wicked Esau. But did Dinah actually have the power to make Esau repent? Based on the commentary of Rashi on the verse (Genesis 32:23) "And [Jacob] arose during that night, and he took his two wives and his two maidservants and his eleven children, and he crossed the ford of [the River] Jabbok." From Likutei Sichos, vol. 35, pp.150-155.

Topics:

Rashi, Dinah's Abduction, Esau, Vayishlach

By Zalman Dubinsky

Rabbi Zalman Dubinsky teaches chassidus and gemara at Yeshivas Tiferes Bachurim in Morristown, New Jersey. He is the author of A Practical Guide to Korban Pesach: The Halacha of the Passover Offering as well as numerous articles on Jewish mysticism and customs.

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11 Comments

Traci November 20, 2024

Where in the text does it say Esau was a murderer idolatator and adulterer? Also as far as Dinah be a tzaddikah where do you get this? She is portrayed as naive and lacking judgement or outright misbehaving.
Do all your points originate with Rashi? Reply

Dov Stein for Chabad.org November 20, 2024

in response to Traci:

The verse in Bereishis reads, "Now Jacob cooked a pottage, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint." (25:29) The Talmud, Bava Batra 16b, explains that verse to mean that Esau took Nimrod's coat that day and that he committed 5 sins in "the field", including murder and rape. The Midrash (Bereishit Rabbah 63:10) describes Esau's abandonment of the ways of Torah after his 13th birthday.

The Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni 134) tells us that Dinah conceived a child from her union with Shechem, a daughter named Asenath. Asenath eventually moved to Egypt and worked in the house of Potiphar. Joseph, who was already a viceroy to the king, met her and was impressed by her commitment to her faith, even in Egypt. He married Asenath (his niece), and they had two children together, Manasseh and Ephraim. Although these sons were born in a foreign land and grew up in luxury, they were so spiritually centered that they surpassed even their cousins who were raised in Canaan. Reply

Dinah November 29, 2018

I want to ask the same questions as some others comments: how can we say that Yaakob avinu was punished for lacking ahavas Yisroel towards his brother? Didn't he show ahavas Yisroel to his daughter, by protecting her?
Having your daughter captured and abused is terrible. It would be hard to argue that it is worse, or as bad as, being captured and abused yourself. Focusing on Yaakov's feeling here seems very strange. Reply

Tom Portland November 24, 2018

I always had trouble with this Rashi interpretation too, that Leah's eyes were "weak" from crying about the possibility she would be married off to Esau. It is curious that there is no record of Isaac's family staying in touch with Laban's family, yet she knows all about him? Or was Esau internationally famous as a mob boss of some kind? And with a crook for a father, how would she even know to be upset by such a future, unless he was also known to mistreat wives? Perhaps there was some other influence, like her mother, that worked on her but not on Laban?
And how do we know Dinah was such a force of character that she would have succeeded? "I can change him" is usually seen as a losing bet in modern day. There isn't much detail about her strength of personality in Scripture. Reply

Anonymous illlinois September 9, 2017

did the edomites ever serve or worship Jehovah? Reply

Anonymous November 16, 2013

Linen and wool. An ox and a donkey.

Why should a gift from God ... wife .... be given to the ungodly?

Should fathers troll the prisons to search for husbands for their good daughters? Reply

M bas S Brooklyn December 2, 2012

What a great speaker! Rabbi Dubinsky has a knack of explaining things so clearly and interestingly! Where can we obtain other shiurim? Reply

sophia Ashland December 2, 2012

could you explain how this is Yaacov that is punished?? Wasn't it Dinah who was abducted and raped? And then, are the lives of the people of Shechem on Yaakov as it was his action who resulted eventually in their demise....How does all of this fit with being a Tzadik. Reply

Tamar New York November 26, 2012

punishment I have had all the questions you brought up for many years and they very much bothered me - e.g. why was Leah not punished so many years before for not wanting to marry Eisav. There is one thing you gave in your answers which still leaves the question - you said that Yaakov did not know that Dinah could be the one to transform Eisav - so once again, why was he punished? and Leah and Dinah too in fact, Leah was after all the mother, she was surely in anguish over what happened to her daughter. And nebech Dinah.... Reply

Peretz Dallas, Texas December 25, 2011

Thank you We need more of Rabbi Dubinsky on chabad.org! Reply

Anonymous morristown December 20, 2011

Amazing amazing keep them coming Reply

Could Dinah Have Made Esau Repent?: From Likutei Sichos - Vayishlach

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