The Need for Purification: The Massacre of Shechem

TITLE PAGE OF MIKE’S TORAH

This week has been a difficult week for me. I find it difficult to leave the house. I have been grieving on and off; starting to put things in order; then stopping. I have started to catch up with the news and was astounded at what was happening in Syria. In addition, I am following the trial of Netanyahu. After two weeks of being out of the real world, it is difficult for me to take this all in. Michael kept up with the news on all the TV stations, and would often call me in to watch with him when something was interesting. I wonder what he would make of all this? I went back to teaching last night and it was a wonderful feeling to get away from mourning. I had thought about writing about Dinah, but then realized that I have two blogs about her. Instead, since I have been going through so many of my husband’s personal effects, deciding what to keep and what to donate and what to throw out, I thought it might be a nice idea to share what he had to say about this week’s parsha. I opened the file that I call “Mike’s Torah” which has his book Inquire and Explore with Wisdom, a Five Volume Commentary on the Chumash (Five Books of Moses). I emphasized in bold some of what I think is relative to our current wars on many fronts (military and political) in Israel. I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions about what I have emphasized. Since I originally helped him edit the book, I felt free to make very slight changes in the original. What follows is my tribute to his wisdom.

AN EXCERPT FROM RABBI MICHAEL GRAETZ’S WRITING ON PARSHAT VAYISHLACH:

The process of Midrash and commentary that constitutes Jewish tradition produces varied readings of events recounted in the Torah. I call this process “Talking Torah”. It is the way I translate “Torah she-be’al peh”, usually translated as “oral Torah”. I prefer “Talking Torah” because it expresses the delightful ambiguity of “talking about Torah” and “Torah talking to us”, which is exactly what happens in the Midrashic process. It is precisely such dialectical talking, which allows for the variety of understandings and lessons that the process produces.

There is a striking example of this in our parasha this week. Jacob has returned to Israel, made up with Esau, gone through a disastrous event when his daughter, Dinah, is raped, and his sons massacre the town responsible. At this point, and after all that, we read:

“God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and remain there [‘aleh bet el ve-shev sham”]; and build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.” So, Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Rid yourselves of the alien gods in your midst, purify yourselves, and change your clothes. Come, let us go up to Bethel, and I will build an altar there to the God who answered me when I was in distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.” They gave to Jacob all the alien gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the terebinth that was near Shechem” (Gen. 35:1-4).

What a strange juxtaposition! After rape and mass murder Jacob is bidden to go to Bethel and build an altar. Jacob, according to the text, understands that this is a wakeup call from God to rid his whole household of idols and idolatry! The revelation that Jacob’s household was rife with idols is astonishing. God reminds Jacob of his departure from Israel, of which we read last week. The dramatic story of his resting at Bethel, of the ladder, of Jacob’s recognition of God’s presence, and of Jacob’s vow consciously returns (cf. Gen. 28:10-22).

What is behind God’s demand of Jacob to go to Bethel and build an altar? Is Jacob’s understanding the correct one? If it is, why does God tell him to “remain there”? After all of these catastrophic events, is idolatry the only issue?!

These questions bother Nachmanides (Ramban) who gives an uncharacteristically personal comment on this verse: “I did not know why [God told Jacob] to remain there.” Perhaps Ramban opines, God first told Jacob to remain there, and afterwards to build an altar in order to purify himself from idolatry. But, Ramban is not satisfied with his own answer. It is too close to the surface of the text. Ramban intuits that Jacob’s understanding of God’s command was too simple. Purification from idolatry is only part of the reason, perhaps the part that is connected to building the altar.

Ramban offers another possibility. That Jacob needed purification for the slaughter of the Shechemites. Ramban cites the rule “You shall then stay outside the camp seven days; every one among you or among your captives who has slain a person or touched a corpse shall cleanse himself on the third and seventh days” (Num 31:19). Those who kill, even in war, need to be purified. Jacob needs to remain there, at least the seven-day period of purification, in order to “clear his mind to concentrate on cleaving to God” (Ramban on Gen 35:1).

Thus, in this approach the building of the altar and the respite at Bethel is not merely a matter of fighting idolatry. It is also an ethical matter, a need to know that bloodshed, under any circumstances of justification, causes impurity. It requires time and thought to return to a path that can bring one closer to God.

I spoke of varieties of understandings.

There is another approach to this command to Jacob. This approach sees God’s command as a reproach to Jacob, who had vowed that if he would return safely and be assured of a future that he would build a monument to God (Gen 28:22). Well, he had returned and done a lot of things, and had NOT kept his vow. Indeed, this view ascribes the tragedy of Dinah as a “punishment” to Jacob for not fulfilling his vow. What is most fascinating is how the Midrash describes Jacob’s behavior. It connects his negligence in keeping his vow to the verse: “If you have been scandalously arrogant, if you have been a schemer, then clap your hand to your mouth” (Prov 30:32).

The Midrash cites a dispute between Ben Azzai and R. Akiba. Ben Azzai says that if you have been scandalous regarding words of Torah, in the end you will become arrogant. R. Akiba says that what causes one to be scandalous regarding Torah is arrogance. In support of R. Akiba the case of R. Levi b. Sissi is cited. He was appointed rabbi in the city of Simonia, and they built him a fine throne to sit up high above the people. At that point R. Levi lost all knowledge of Torah, and the verse of Proverbs was applied to him (Gen Rabbah 81:2).

R. Levi has undertaken an oath, that is, his study and appointment as rabbi is seen as a kind of oath to keep the integrity of Torah. But, when one is swollen with ambition or allows arrogance of status to become a motivation, the oath is ignored. The implication is that Jacob had ignored his oath because he had been such a success. Despite his worry about the reaction of the local population, he might have secretly assumed that what his sons did was necessary. He had, after all, bested Laban, become very wealthy in the process, made up with Esau, and now had struck fear into the hearts of the locals.

Indeed, this Midrash reproves Jacob: “Jacob you have forgotten your oath, arise to Bethel… and if you shall not do so, you are just like Esau. For as Esau vows and does not keep his vows, so you have vowed and have not keep it.” There is supposed to be a moral difference in Jacob’s behavior, but up to this point there is none. Building the altar, and remaining there are means to break Jacob out of his arrogance, to remind him that many of his and his children’s actions have been scandalous, and that is not fitting to one who is meant to cleave to God.

You might want to relate to what I have emphasized in bold to certain public figures today both in our country and elsewhere. Rabbi Michael Graetz has much more to say on this, but I suggest that you go to his website to find what he wrote and to dip into it for yourselves.

Shabbat shalom