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.
Now, 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.
Think about it. 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.
But 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 grappling with 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.