Dinah's Abduction

Why did Simeon and Levi kill the people of Shechem? Were their actions morally justified? Morally imperative? And why do they serve as the prototype for the law of bar mitzvah, the Jewish boy’s attainment of maturity and responsibility?

The classical interpretation is that Leah and Dinah’s behavior is being condemned as unbecoming the Jewish woman’s virtue of “innerness.” But a careful analysis of the source texts shows the very opposite to be the case . . .

Where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob failed, a young girl could have succeeded

From beginning to end, Genesis 34 tells a terrifying story. Dina, Jacob’s daughter – the only Jewish daughter mentioned in the entire patriarchal narratives – leaves the safety of home to go out to “look at the daughters of the land.” She is raped and abd...

Why would an irrational, irresponsible and legally questionable act serve as the precedent by which to measure reasonability and legal responsibility?

It is written in the Torah: “Jacob heard that his daughter Dina had been defiled. But his sons were in the fields with the cattle and Jacob kept his silence until they returned home. Hamor, father of Shechem came to Jacob to talk. And when Jacob’s sons re...