Reflections from Rabbi Ellis

After twenty years in Babylon Yakov finally returns to Israel in this week’s Parsha. Life was not easy for him in Babylon but the challenges that he knew there pale in comparison to what he will contend with in the land that G!d swore to his forefathers. The most difficult aspect of the challenges is that they are never the ones that Yakov has prepared for.

The Parsha starts out with Yakov sending messengers to his brother Esau. The two have not seen each other for over two decades, the last thing Yakov heard about Esau is that he wanted to kill Yakov. Yakov spends the first two Aliyot of our Parsha preparing for the attack he is sure will take place when he meets Esau. In the end Yakov is attacked by an unnamed assailant before meeting Esau, while the meeting with Esau is peaceful and free of any aggression. The battle that Yakov fought was not what he had prepared for and in the end his preparations were meaningless. He emerged victorious from his midnight struggle against an unnamed assailant because of the strength and stamina that he cultivated as part of his daily life, not because of any particular strategy that he had prepared for dealing with his enemies. In fact, it was the defensive plan that he was carrying out against Esau that left him vulnerable to his midnight attack.

After successfully concluding his meeting with Esau, Yakov turns north and buys property opposite the city of Shechem. Dina goes out to interact with the other young women of the city and is raped and kidnapped by the Shechem, the prince of the city. The Torah introduces this section stating that Dina is the daughter of Leah born to Yakov. The point of this is to tell us that she went out with their knowledge and permission.

Leah is from Haran; she and her sister regularly took her father’s sheep to pasture without being molested by the men of her city. Yakov met Rachel, Leah’s sister, in just such a circumstance. It had been that way in Haran for generations. Rivka, Yakov’s mother, had a similar childhood. She too was tending to her father’s sheep in Haran when Avraham’s servant met her years before. The problem for Dina was that they were no longer in Babylon.

The family was now in the land of Canaan, where women were not safe. Yakov knew this from his childhood. In Parshat Toldot Yitzhak, Yakov’s father, tells the locals that his wife is actually his sister. When Avimelech, the king of Gerar, asks him why he repeats what his father had said about the place. That it is a lawless place with no fear of G!d where they will kill a husband in order to steal his wife. Yakov had the knowledge and experience to protect his daughter from the people around them, but he lulled himself into a false sense of security. The Midrash relates that Yakov hid Dina from Esau when they met. Yakov was so frightened about what his brother would do to Dina that he failed to perceive the actual threats that she faced.

It is clear from this week’s Parsha that we are most vulnerable to actual danger when we make enemies of our brothers.

Shabbat Shalom!