Vayishlach (Part 4) - Genesis 32:4-36:43

Rape.

It's not an easy topic to talk about, but it is repeated in the Torah a number of times.

Raping a married Jewish woman is really bad (death), raping a slave woman owned by another, bad, but not as bad (pay a fine), raping a gentile woman and forcing her to be your wife because she was really cute, that's fine, and as for an unmarried non-virgin woman? Well, the Torah is silent on the topic.

I go at length about Rape In The Torah, here.

There is a Christian apologist who explains that "God couldn't denounce slavery, because if He did, nobody would have listened to him."

I suppose the same thing can be applied to rape.

But let's look at the rape of Dinah for a couple of minutes.

If you read the classical commentators, they seem to have a lot of blame to go around, not unlike what you hear in modern society. "She was asking for it.", "It's the fault of her parents", "Look at the people that she was keeping company with." All of that, and more.

According to one commentary, had Jacob only given her to Esau, to marry one of his sons, then it would have all been better. In fact, the rape took place because God did not approve of Jacob keeping Dinah away from the Esau clan.

Remember, that Jacob made a deal with YHVH: "...return me to my father's house in peace, and then you will be my Elohim".

Jacob had yet to return to his father's house, but it looks like YHVH, like an evil genie, was playing with the deal, keeping JACOB safe. Rachael dies in childbirth. Dinah is raped. Joseph is sold into slavery ("Well, it turned out OK in the end, right?").

YHVH was sticking to the deal, keeping JACOB safe.

As far as how old was Dinah, the text doesn't say. She could have been anywhere from 6 years old, to 12, based on her being born sometime during Jacob's final term with Laban.

The final part of the story, where her two teenage brothers wipe out the town, supposedly in her honor, and then claim it as their home base, is interesting.

What does Jacob do when he hears that his daughter is raped? He is silent. When the rapist and his dad come visit and offer a deal, Jacob is silent about any complaint. What does he do when he finds out what his sons did, it is only THEN that he complains, saying that the neighbors might attack them. And when he is confronted by the question, "Would you have our sister be treated as  a whore?", what is his response?

He was silent.

Just like his God.