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SOME PRE-SHABBAT WORDS FROM RABBI AARON

The Danger of Silence  - parashat Vayishlach 

The text below comes from a blog posting back in 2007. the blog is called “the watering hole”, a forum for Torah talk for the twenty-something crowd. here’s some relevant info if you’d like to sample some Torah at “the watering hole” ...

Note:  All of Rabbi Aaron’s words are in regular text.  All blog entries from the Watering Hole are italicized.

The Watering Hole was yesterday's water cooler. The blog exists to provide a platform for discussion, insight and connections based on the weekly Parsha, or Torah portion, for and from the 20-something layperson. TWH seeks to answer one question: how is this 2,000-year-old document relevant to our lives today? We provide multiple commentaries each week, composed by a diverse collection of minds, perspectives and levels of "Jewishness." The only rule is that contributors read the week's portion and react to any or all of it. The text can - and will - be challenged. If you'd like to contribute, or have questions, comments or suggestions, contact The Watering Hole at: wateringholetorah@gmail.com.

The words speak for themselves. while the topic of rape seems quite risky for a drash in shul on Shabbat, our sacred text presents a painful drama, complete with violent revenge, an emotionally absent father, and a woman whose voice has been silenced. for these reasons, I thought it would important to post some some discussion about the rape, Jacob’s response, and the atrocities committed by his sons. The blog is immediately below...

I think when most people read about the story of Dinah, they are initially shocked and appalled by the act of rape itself. We tend to focus our anger mainly on Shechem, the son of Hamor, and contemplate how evil and arrogant he must be to kidnap and rape a woman just because he feels entitled to her. However, when I read about Dinah’s rape this time around, I was more outraged by Jacob’s response than really anything else. One would think that as Dinah’s father, Jacob would be the most distraught and angered that his daughter has just been raped, but instead of wanting revenge for his innocent daughter’s rape, he is silent. It truly baffles me how Jacob could remain so quiet and calm after his daughter’s rape. How can he be so silent in the face of tragedy? How could anyone be silent and not take a stand against the rape of the innocent?

I say this, and yet it occurs to me that we, as humans and Americans, are silent everyday as similar atrocities are happening around the world. Just look at the tragedy in Sudan. While there is still ridiculous debate amongst the international community about whether Darfur should be considered genocide, the bottom line is that as many as 400,000 civilians have been killed and up to 2.5 million Darfuris have been forced to leave their homes and now live in camps for internally displaced persons. Call it genocide, ethnic cleansing, a crime against humanity…it really doesn’t matter what we call it, especially since right now, our silence is doing all the talking.

Now in its fourth year of violence, the U.N. has called Darfur, the world's “greatest humanitarian crisis,” and President Bush has come out and declared it to be genocide. So why then are thousands and thousands of innocent people being killed and raped every day?

“When my village was attacked, 30 men with guns entered in the village. Some of them found me in my house. Three of them raped me and I fell unconscious. The men locked me inside my house (straw hut) and set it on fire. I managed to get out of the house through the burning grass.”

--Woman, 17, October 2004, West Darfur
--A female refugee from Disa [Masalit village, West Darfur],
interviewed by Amnesty International delegates
in Goz Amer camp for Sudanese refugees in Chad, May 2004

In Darfur, rape is used as a weapon of war*. The Janjaweed rape the Sudanese women as a way to violate their human rights, and also as a way to humiliate her husband, her family and her community. Rapes are done in the open, to young girls, pregnant women, anytime, anywhere. If you resist the rape, then you are beaten and even killed.

"I was sleeping when the attack on Disa started. I was taken away by the attackers, they were all in uniforms. They took dozens of other girls and made us walk for three hours. During the day we were beaten and they were telling us: "You, the black women, we will exterminate you, you have no god." At night we were raped several times. The Arabs guarded us with arms and we were not given food for three days."

Just like Dinah’s voice is never heard throughout Genesis, these women also usually remain silent about their rapes and beatings. During Dinah’s time, a woman would remain silent about a rape because it was considered an extremely shameful act. (The Law of Deuteronomy 22 and Exodus 22 explain that the rapists would have been expected to marry the woman he rapes, live with her and support her for the rest of her life.)

Likewise, in Sudan and in many Islamic countries, society views sexual assault as a dishonor upon the woman's entire family. Victims can face terrible ostracism and embarrassment if they come forward. Therefore, rape victims remain quiet in order to avoid stigma or further mistreatment. (Just listen to Aziza’s story, which almost completely parallel’s Dinah’s story.)

"I am 16 years old. On day, in March 2004, I was collecting firewood for my family when three armed men on camels came and surrounded me. They held me down, tied my hands and raped me one after the other. When I arrive home, I told my family what happened. They threw me out of home and I had to build my own hut away from them. I was engaged to a man and I was so much looking forward to getting married. After I got raped, he did not want to marry me and broke off the engagement because he said that I was now disgraced and spoilt. When I was eight months pregnant from the rape, the police came to my hut and forced me with their guns to go to the police station. They asked me questions, so I told them that I had been raped. They told me that as I was not married, I will deliver this baby illegally. They beat me with a whip on the chest and back and put me in jail. 

There were other women in jail, who had the same story. During the day, we had to walk to the well four times a day to get the policemen water, clean and cook for them. At night, I was in a small cell with 23 other women. I had no other food than what I could find during my work during the day. And the only water was what I drank at the well. I stayed 10 days in jail and now I still have to pay the fine, 20,000 Sudanese Dinars (65 USD) they asked me. My child is now 2 months old."

--Woman, 16, February 2005, West Darfur

After the Holocaust, the world said, “Never Again.” After the Rwanda genocide, we promised, “Not on Our Watch.” Genocide is happening and something most be done, more quickly and more forcibly before it is too late. I won’t pretend to have all the answers regarding this tragedy, and I realize that this is a complicated issue that can’t be solved overnight. But what I am 100% sure about is that silence is not an option. We can’t just sit back while innocent people are murdered and raped. This genocide has gone on long enough.

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

--Martin Luther King, Jr.

* sadly, Darfur is certainly not the only example of rape employed as a terror tactic. Rape is part of the Iranian tyranny being unleashed upon those who dare to dissent. Rape has been employed as a terror tactic in the Congo and in Zimbabwe. The list goes on...

Once more, a glimpse back at our parasha

After Shimon and Levi commit mass murder (The traditional apologetics for their behavior is unacceptable. Whatever the brothers thought of Shechem's act, there's no judge or jury; only vengeance.), listen to Jacob's confrontation:  

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed." But they replied, "Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?"

Jacob is worried about Jacob. The angry locals might kill him. His reputation is stained. The brothers are indignant about Dina's "honor." So where is Dinah's voice? How damning that the writer only hands us silence. Even when a dying Jacob denounces Shimon and Levi for their violence, not a word about his daughter! Small wonder that this chapter stirs up so much indignation. Dinah's humanity is another casualty of the violence. The ongoing family silence speaks volumes. The injustice is deafening.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Aaron