Dinah and Shechem, the Meat the Bird Snatched Away

(See below, verse 31) "And they said, Should he deal with our sister as with a harlot?" (Genesis 34:31) Meaning, do they treat us like ownerless people? And who caused this? "And Dinah the daughter of Leah went out" (Genesis 34:1). (2 Kings 14:9) "The thistle that was in Lebanon" is Hamor the father of Shechem; "sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon" is Jacob; (same) "Give your daughter to my son" answers to "Shechem my son longs for your daughter." (2 Kings, same) "And a wild beast of the field passed by and trampled the thistle" answers to (below, verse 26) "And Hamor and Shechem his son they slew with the edge of the sword." Who caused it? "And Dinah the daughter of Leah went out." Rabbi Berechiah in the name of Rabbi Levi: it is like a man who held a pound of meat in his hand; the moment he uncovered it, a bird swooped down and snatched it from him. So too, "And Dinah the daughter of Leah went out, and Shechem the son of Hamor saw her, and he lay with her," in the natural way, "and he violated her," against the natural way. (Genesis 34:5) "And Jacob held his peace until they came" - this is what is written, "and a man of understanding holds his peace" (Proverbs 11:12). (Genesis 34:7) "And the sons of Jacob came in from the field" (written at sign 37). "For he had wrought folly in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, and such a thing ought not to be done" - even among the nations of the world, for from the hour the world was stricken in the generation of the Flood, they rose up and fenced themselves off from sexual immorality. (Genesis 34:8) "Shechem my son longs in his soul." Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: with three expressions of affection the Holy One, blessed be He, showed love to Israel - with cleaving, with longing, and with desiring. With cleaving, as it is said, "And you who cleave to the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy 4:4); with longing, as it is said, "The LORD longed for you" (Deuteronomy 7:7); with desiring, "For you shall be a land of desire" (Malachi 3:12). And we learn the same three from the account of that wicked man: cleaving, "And his soul cleaved to Dinah daughter of Jacob"; longing, "Shechem my son longs in his soul for your daughter"; desiring, "for he had desire in the daughter of Jacob" (below, verse 19). Rabbi Abba ben Elisha adds two more: with love and with speech. With love, "I have loved you, says the LORD" (Malachi 1:2); with speech, "Speak to the heart of Jerusalem" (Isaiah 40:2). And we learn these too from the account of that wicked man: with love, "And he loved the girl" (above, verse 3); with speech, "And he spoke to the heart of the girl" - words that comfort the heart he spoke to her. He said to her: see how much money your father spent for a single field; I, who am able to give you many saplings and many fields fit for sowing, how much more so. (Genesis 34:9) "And make marriages with us." Rabbi Elazar said: Israel never puts its finger into the mouth of a Cuthean, and so on; "And make marriages with us" - yet Scripture warns, "You shall not intermarry with them" (Deuteronomy 7:3). (Genesis 34:12) "Ask of me ever so much dowry and gift" - dowry is the marriage portion, and gift is the bridal payment. (Genesis 34:13-14) "And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem" - do you think there was deceit in their words? The Holy Spirit replies, "because he had defiled Dinah their sister." (Genesis 34:23) "Shall not their cattle and their substance and every beast of theirs be ours?" - they thought to swallow others, and were themselves swallowed up. (Genesis 34:24) "And they hearkened to Hamor and to Shechem his son" - one of them would be carrying his burden, saying, "Shechem takes the wife, and from me he cuts off the foreskin!" (Amos 5:19) "As if a man fled from a lion" - this is Laban, who pursued him to seize his life. (same) "And a bear met him" - this is Esau, who stood on the road like a bereaved bear. (same) "And he came home and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him" - this is Shechem son of Hamor. Jacob's daughter was sitting in the tents. What did Shechem son of Hamor do? He brought girls playing outside, beating drums, and she went out to look at the daughters of the land, and he seized her and lay with her. She conceived and bore Asenath. And the sons of Jacob said to kill her. They said: it will be said in all the land that there is a daughter of harlotry in the tents of Jacob. What did Jacob do? He wrote the Holy Name on a plate of gold and hung it on her neck and sent her away. And all is foreseen before the Holy One, blessed be He. And the angel Michael descended and took her and brought her down to Egypt, to the house of Potiphera, for Asenath was fit for Joseph; and the wife of Potiphera was barren, and she raised her as a daughter, and Joseph took her as a wife.