Vayishlach 5773

I had many thoughts about this Torah portion but I'll hold them to myself before I sort them out.  Rav Moshe Soloveichik presented this topic in a very interesting and inspiring way, touching upon the difficult questions of justification for mass violence in responce to one reprehensible act.

Rav Moshe Soloveichik dedicated this shiur in memory of Dr. Goldstein’s father, whose yorzait was observed last week.

The Torah portion Vayishlach discusses the episode of Shechem.  Rav Moshe’s father was a big liberal, politically, as a young boy he would take him voting.  In New York there were 3 parties: democrats, republican and liberal.  Rav Moshe’s father would always vote liberal.  His mother would vote depending on whose name sounded Jewish.  Later in life his father’s views changed, he voted republican because they were much more supportive of Israel.  What bothered Rav Moshe’s father most was the dropping of the A-bomb on Hiroshima.  As a young fellow they threw him out of shul because of his views.  He was against death penalty, mostly because of the Rosenberg affair.  He sometimes would talk about this on parsha Vayishlach.  In regards to the Vietnam war Rav Moshe’s father considered that to drop bombs on civilians is a murder.  His uncle held completely opposite, very conservative views and was saying that Vietnam war was a mitzvah.  The yeshiva boys used to talk about divergent attitudes on Vietnam war. The big question was about the Vayishlach were for the first time Jews execute the whole town of civilians. Shechem was the son of Hamor, who was the leader, the mayor of the city of Shechem, unclear whether the city was called after the son, or the son was called after the city.

Dina daughter of Yakov and Leah goes out to see the girls of town, to befriend the local girls.  As a result she draws interest of Shechem and gets raped by him.  He asks for her hand in marriage, the sons of Yakov play trick on him, tell him to circumcise along with the people of the city.  The whole thing was a trick.  Hamor and Shechem approached people of the town, mentioned how it is for their benefit to become one nation with this people, they all undergo bris milah, after that on third day they were in great pain, and the sons of Yakov under the leadership of Shimon and Levy kill all man of the town.  Yakov comes back displeased, but the sons say – should our sister be treated like a harlot?

At the end he chastised Shimon and Levy, that in their anger they killed.

 

Double question: 1) how is it that the sons of Yakov are ready to go and kill everybody out?  2) If the murder of Shechem men was justified, then why was Yakov angry about it? Murder is prohibited, even of a non-Jew.  Rabbi Simchah was a great rabbi, he send rav Hutner a postcard – killing of a non-Jew is a murder.  So how is it that the sons of Yakov went and killed.  Rambam confronts the question, gives technical legal answer based on the Biblical commandment that non-Jews are required to observe 7 mitzvoth of Noah.

Opinion of the rabbis: Any mitzvah that is rational, that a person would think of himself, since the time of Adam, he is required to observe.  Torah defines violation of Noahide laws capital offences. 

 

Justice, mitzvah of din, according to Rambam one of the seven laws is enforcing the law.

The city knew that Shechem raped Dinah and they did not take any action against him, they supported him.  The city in its totality violated one of the seven mitzvahs. 

 

Rav Moshe’s uncle said that if you don’t enforce a law, it is as if you violated that law.

 

They all played a role in the rape of Dinah, they let an atmosphere exist that allowed Shechem to do this type of things, then for some degree they are responsible for those things.  Sometimes the enablers are worse than perpetrators of the crime.  Not because of one time vs many times.  Sometimes the perpetrators are sick people, and the enablers are not sick.  They encouraged, supported Shechem, consequently they committed a capital offense themselves.  Therefore the sons of Yakov are right, then why is Yakov unhappy with them, here and in the next parsha.

 

The ancient nations in Canaan violated almost all mitzvoth.  If you are looking for an excuse to kill them – they did not have to go far to find it.

What about all other laws that they violated, idolatry etc…, forget about enforcing the law, they violated everything.

 

Rav Moshe’s father had an answer in the difference in death penalty given by a beit din for a crime.  The death penalties were given when beit din resided in beit hamikdash, where a court that gave a death penalty once in 70 years was considered a murderous beit din, this was done extremely rarely because of the thoroughness of investigation. The halachah is so complicated that the death penalty is very rarely used.  So when all halachot are applied there is much emphasis on avoidance of violent measures and capital punishment in Gemara than in the original Chumash.

 

The death penalty for a Jew in halachah is considered a form of atonement.  For the non-Jews it was used to enforce the law, in case of the Noachide who violated one of the 7 laws, the beit din would prescribe death penalty only to the degree to prevent breaking of the law.  It was preferable to use other preventive measures, lesser penalties for the observance of 7 Noachide laws.  That’s why Yakov was angry – because death penalty should not be used when other measures can be taken to preserve the Noachide laws.

 

As far as other crimes were concerned, it could be that they were not brought up with any knowledge of halachah.  If someone was brought up in a society were there was nothing else but idolatry, they had no way of knowing themselves.

 

There is no question that they could get a capital punishment, they violated capital offences.  But Yakov and his sons were not part of Shechem community, it was not their responsibility to mete out the death penalty.  If the purpose of the death penalty is to enforce the law, then it is not their responsibility.  However, there is another purpose, and that is protection.  If community violates the law then anyone who is physically threatened becomes an interested party and they have responsibility to enforce the law. Dinah’s mistake was that she was trying to befriend the lawless community.  The brothers did what they did because they had to protect themselves, their own community.  They felt they were allowed to do that.  Yakov’s argument – the people of Shechem  deserved the death penalty, but who told you to do it, you are not part of the community, you are spoiling our reputation in the land. 

Rambam cites a midrash that the cities around Shechem gathered together and waged war against Yakov’s camp as a result of what happened to Shechem, that’s why Yakov was against it.  So Yakov considered that we should not get involved in justice of the community, but the sons had to do it to protect ourselves. 

 

It was preventive for us, to protect us, if Shechem gets away with it – should we treat our sister like a harlot?  If we let him get away with it, it will not be a one time thing, our girls will be treated this way from now on. 

What about idolatry, the other offences – they were not part of that community, it was not a direct threat to the sons of Yakov. 

 

The idea of a community that has an obligation not just to enforce the moral code, but more important is the idea of protection.  In the U.S. we are not in position to enforce the law, but we are in a position to protect ourselves, our families, as well as the World Jewish community, if we don’t protect then we are also responsible. 

DM: I think the shock and confusion many people feel reading Chumash, where the acts of immorality are countered with violent means, is caused by the unfortunate fact that we’ve been living in exile for so long, and we are so used to the immorality and corruption in our host societies, that it became internalized and is seen as a norm, while BH violence is still causes us shock and indignation, although mass media spares no effort to desensitize our eyes to the sight of blood and our minds to the worst cruelty. Torah regards murder and immorality as equivalent offense, this is the truth that is the hardest to understand and accept.