Great Aunt Rachel Goldman's Visit

Great Aunt Rachel Goldman from Miami, Florida
shares "family stories" about Jacob

Great Aunt Rachel Goldman of Miami, Florida, visited the Ocheltree Shepherding Group on Sunday morning, sharing "family stories", the kind you only hear when you're a real "insider".  These stories, mind you, are taken from from Jewish tradition and commentators on Torah.  They are speculations on why things really happened as they did.  We cannot prove or disprove these theories.  But, why do we listen to the Jewish commentators?  Because this is their story!  Who is better prepared to share all the inside family stories than the family itself?

 

The stories, as shared briefly in Genesis 33-36 of the Bible, are scandalous.  A young woman, Dinah, is raped by the prince of a neighboring village.  When her powerful brothers hear of the outrage, they are incensed.  They practice subterfuge, at first appearing to agree to a marriage of their sister to her rapist.  They convince the young man that he and all the men of his village must undergo, shall we say, a minor surgical procedure--circumcision.  Then, three days later, while all the men are recovering, two of the brothers attack the village and kill the rapist, and kill all the other village men, in the process of rescuing their sister and vindicating her honor.

 

Here is one fascinating tidbit, gleaned from Jewish tradition: Dinah, the daughter of Leah and Jacob, actually began life as a male embryo. Tradition states that she became a female when her mother, Leah, prayed, thus exercising judgment (din), that her sister Rachel be allowed to have at least two of the 12 sons which everyone knew Jacob was supposed to have.  At this point, Leah had six sons and each of the maidservants had two sons.  If Rachel were not allowed to have two sons, she would not even be equal to the maidservants, according to Torah commentor Rashi. (Women in the Bible #5: Dinah by Dina Coopersmith, aish.com)

 

Another fascinating tidbit, again, gleaned from Jewish tradition, is that Dinah had a child as a result of being raped, a daughter named Osnat, who was adopted by Potiphar in Egypt and eventually was given to Joseph in marriage.  (Midrash -- Yalkut Shimoni 134) Osnat or Asenath--Genesis 41:50 is the mother of Joseph's two sons, for whom the Israelite tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh are named. (Women in the Bible #5: Dinah by Dina Coopersmith, aish.com)

 

As I said earlier, we cannot prove or disprove these theories.  But, it is interesting to hear the "story behind the story" in a family.  It often helps us understand a lot of things in the here-and-now.  And, certainly, we gain from these stories a sense of a God who loves His people unconditionally and redeems them from even the worst of situations--whether of their own making or at the hands of someone else.  Rape, Revenge and Redemption.  It's all there to read about in Genesis 33-36.

 

--Posted by Mama O.