Parshat Vayishlach4 min read

Simeon and Levi Destroyed Shechem With Esau's Sword

Simeon and Levi razed a city for their sister. Jacob cursed their anger, not their deed, because the weapon was never theirs to carry.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Three Days After the Agreement
  2. The Brothers Answer With a Question
  3. The Barrel That Was Clear and the Barrel That Was Murky
  4. The Sword That Was Not Theirs

Three Days After the Agreement

On the third day, when the men of Shechem were still sore from the circumcision they had accepted as the price of marrying into Jacob's family, Simeon and Levi took their swords. They entered the city while it was still morning and the men were still in pain, slow to rise, slow to reach for anything to defend themselves. Two brothers walked the streets against a whole population, and the wounds in the men's flesh did the work that numbers could not. They killed every male. They came to Shechem's house and took Dinah out from under that roof, and they left the way they had come. Then the other sons of Jacob came to the plundered city and finished the work: they took the flocks and the cattle and the women and the children and everything in the houses, until what had been a city of marriage offers was an empty shell.

The Brothers Answer With a Question

Jacob's response was not grief for the dead. It was calculation. "You have troubled me," he said. "You have made my name loathsome among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather against me and destroy the household." He counted his sons, his servants, his herds, and he counted the nations pressing in on every side, and the arithmetic frightened him. The brothers answered him with a question they did not expect him to answer: "Should our sister be treated like a prostitute?"

The text leaves both positions standing. The father weighs survival, the sons weigh honor, and neither answers the other.

The Barrel That Was Clear and the Barrel That Was Murky

The rabbis of Bereshit Rabbah sharpened the tension. The barrel metaphor they placed in Jacob's mouth made his concern explicit: there had been a clear tradition, a divine schedule, that the Canaanites would fall into Israel's hands -- but not yet, not until the descendants of Jacob multiplied to six hundred thousand. Simeon and Levi had acted too early. A clear barrel had been made murky. They had transformed migrants, a small wandering household with a tent and a well, into enemies in the eyes of every surrounding people.

But on his deathbed, Jacob's words about Simeon and Levi landed on their anger, not on their deed. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel. He did not say cursed be their sword. He did not say cursed be their plan. He said cursed be their anger. The distinction, which the rabbis pressed on carefully, suggested that Jacob was separating the brothers' emotional state from the action itself, condemning what moved them rather than what they did.

The Sword That Was Not Theirs

There is a tradition that the sword Simeon and Levi took into Shechem was not an ordinary sword. It was a sword that had come down from Esau. The rabbis read Jacob's blessing in Genesis 49:5 -- their weapons are instruments of violence -- against the context of Isaac's blessing to Esau in Genesis 27:40 -- you shall live by your sword. The blade itself belonged to the other line, to the brother who lived by hunting and ambush, and now it hung at the hip of Leah's sons. The violence at Shechem was carried out with a weapon that was supposed to belong to a different line, to a different inheritance. Simeon and Levi had done what Esau's descendant was supposed to do, with Esau's method, and Jacob's curse on their anger was also a recognition that they had reached for something foreign to who they were supposed to be. The hands were the hands of Jacob's house. The sword was the sword of Esau.

SimeonLeviDinahShechemAngerViolence
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From the tradition

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The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Bereshit Rabbah 99:7Bereshit Rabbah

One particularly intense moment: Jacob's words about Simeon and Levi.

It all starts with the verse: "Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of villainy are their heritage" (Genesis 49:5). But what does it mean?

The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), specifically Bereshit Rabbah 99, unpacks this loaded statement, revealing layers of family drama and moral reckoning. Imagine Reuben, Jacob’s eldest, walking around dejected. Why? Because Jacob is laying into Simeon and Levi. Jacob calls them "brothers for degradation." He reminds them, "You were brothers for Dina," referencing their violent revenge after Shechem violated their sister, as it's written: "Two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dina’s brothers, each took his sword" (Genesis 34:25). But, Jacob pointedly asks, were they brothers when it came to Joseph? Because they certainly didn’t act like it when they sold him into slavery.

Rabbi Simlai adds another layer. He reminds us that it's written about Reuben: “In order to deliver him from their hand, to restore him to his father” (Genesis 37:22). This tells us that Reuben wasn't involved in selling Joseph. And Judah, another older brother, even questioned, "What profit [is there if we kill our brother]?" (Genesis 37:26). So, if Reuben and Judah were against it, who was behind it? Bereshit Rabbah suggests that it must have been Simeon and Levi, who organized the sale.

Want more proof? When the brothers later went to Egypt, who did Joseph (in disguise, of course) single out? Simeon. "He took Simeon from them [and incarcerated him before their eyes]" (Genesis 42:24). This is why Jacob lumps the two together.

Then comes the phrase, "weapons of villainy." What are those? Jacob says they were "stolen" by them. They belong to Esau, Jacob’s brother, who was told, "By your sword you shall live" (Genesis 27:40). The Midrash connects "villainy" to Esau, referencing the verse: "For the villainy to your brother Jacob" (Obadiah 1:10). So, according to Jacob, Simeon and Levi are wielding weapons that aren't even rightfully theirs; they belong to the archetype of the villain, Esau.

The text then explores the meaning of "their heritage [mekheroteihem]". Rabbi Yoḥanan suggests it might be a Greek expression, makhirin, meaning swords or daggers. Others say it refers to "their residences [meguroteihem]," linking it to the verse: "Your origins [mekhorotayikh] and your birthplace" (Ezekiel 16:3). This could imply that their violent tendencies are deeply ingrained, part of their very being.

Jacob continues, "Let my soul not come in their company; with their assembly let my glory not be associated; for in their anger they killed men, and with their will they hamstrung oxen" (Genesis 49:6). The Midrash interprets this as Jacob disassociating himself from future misdeeds of their descendants. When Zimri, a Simeonite, commits a public act of immorality with Cozbi, Jacob doesn’t want his name mentioned there. And when Korah, a Levite, leads a rebellion against Moses, Jacob wants no association. In both cases, the lineage is traced back to Simeon or Levi, but stops short of Jacob.

But what about the phrase "they killed men [ish]"? Didn't they kill all the males of Shechem? The Midrash answers that, from God’s perspective, they were all considered as one man. Just as Isaiah says: “Behold [hen], nations may be regarded like a drop from a bucket…” (Isaiah 40:16). Hen, in Greek, means "one." So, their actions were seen as a singular, unified act of violence.

Finally, Jacob pronounces: "Cursed is their anger, as it is fierce, and their wrath, as it is harsh; I will divide them in Jacob, and I will disperse them in Israel" (Genesis 49:7). Notice he curses their anger, not them directly. The Midrash connects this to Bilam, who says, "How will I curse, where God has not cursed?" (Numbers 23:8). Even in anger, Jacob is careful.

"I will divide them in Jacob." How does this play out? The tribe of Simeon dwindles after the incident with Zimri. Tradition says that the widows of the fallen warriors had to be absorbed by other tribes. The tribe of Levi, on the other hand, becomes the priestly tribe, supported by tithes. Even though they are elevated, they still circulate, asking for their portion, fulfilling Jacob’s prophecy. The Holy One blessed be He elevated [Levi] and gave him one-tenth, and he circulates and says: ‘Give me my portion.’

So, what do we take away from this complex and troubling passage? It's a reminder that actions have consequences, rippling through generations. It's a meditation on the nature of anger and violence, and how even in moments of intense emotion, restraint and careful consideration are paramount. And perhaps most profoundly, it’s a glimpse into the burdens and complexities of family, and the enduring legacy – both positive and negative – that we inherit and pass on. What aspects of your family's legacy do you find yourself confronting?

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Bereshit Rabbah 80:12Bereshit Rabbah

Dina, Jacob’s daughter, goes out to visit the women of the land, and is defiled by Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite. Shechem then asks his father to obtain Dina as his wife. Jacob's sons, furious, deceive the men of Shechem into getting circumcised, and then, while they are recovering, Simeon and Levi kill all the men of the city.

Jacob is understandably upset. Really upset. As (Genesis 34:30) tells us, he says to Simeon and Levi: "You have troubled me, to render me loathsome to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizites, and I am few in number; they will mobilize against me and smite me, and I and my household will be destroyed."

The Rabbis in Bereshit Rabbah 80 dig into this tense moment. Jacob is basically saying, "The barrel was clear, and you rendered it murky." What does that even mean? Well, the Rabbis explain that there was a tradition – a promise, almost – that the Canaanites were destined to fall into Jacob's hands. But! And it's a big but. God had said this wouldn't happen until Jacob's descendants had multiplied and reached six hundred thousand. Jacob and his family are still relatively small in number. Now, because of Simeon and Levi's violent act, the Canaanites will see Jacob as an immediate threat. Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon elaborates on this in Bereshit Rabbah, highlighting the precariousness of Jacob's position.

Simeon and Levi aren't backing down. They retort, as we see in (Genesis 34:31), "Shall he render our sister as a harlot?" In Bereshit Rabbah, they're essentially saying, "The barrel was murky, and we rendered it clear." They're asking, "What, will they treat us as worthless people?"

So, who's to blame? The Rabbis don't shy away from the tough questions. They point back to the beginning: "Who caused it? 'Dina…went out.'"

That phrase, "Dina…went out," is loaded. It's not just a simple statement of fact. It's a subtle commentary on Dina's actions, suggesting that perhaps she shouldn't have ventured out in the first place. It's a complex issue, and the Rabbis are confronting the idea of cause and effect, of individual responsibility versus communal safety. It brings up issues of how Jewish communities should interact with the outside world.

This whole episode, preserved for us in Bereshit Rabbah, leaves you pondering. Was Simeon and Levi's reaction justified? Was Dina's initial action to blame? Or was Jacob right to fear the consequences of their violence? There are no easy answers. It's a story that forces us to confront the messy realities of life, the unforeseen consequences of our actions, and the delicate balance between justice, revenge, and survival.

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