This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Vayishlach (Genesis 32:4-36:43). I discuss it with Rabbi Rabbs.
JPS: Even more terrible than the offense against the person and dignity of the girl and the assault upon the honor of the family is the pollution of the moral environment. The entire community becomes infected by such wanton deeds.
Hebrew navalah is a powerful term describing offenses of such profound abhorrence that they threaten to tear apart the fabric of Israelite society. For society’s own self-protection, such atrocities can never be tolerated or left unpunished.
Some sexual sins are far more serious than other sins.
How much money would you want to forget the rape of your daughter?
* What bothered Jacob? Was he thinking, poor Dinah? Or, was he thinking, they took one of our girls without permission?
* Shechem rapes her and then says to his dad, “Love is not blind. Love enables one to see. And now that I see what I have done…”
