Thursday, December 3, 2020

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Vayishlach

The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts on the parsha that R' Frand spoke about in his shiur tonight. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

Rabbi Frand began his vort by quoting the pasuk in Bereishis 34:1 which states וַתֵּצֵ֤א דִינָה֙ בַּת־לֵאָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר יָֽלְדָ֖ה לְיַֽעֲקֹ֑ב לִרְא֖וֹת בִּבְנ֥וֹת הָאָֽרֶץ

R' Frand first quoted Rashi who links Dina to her mother as it also states in Parshas Toldos that Leah went out to greet Ya'akov and this showed that Dina and Leah both had a character of straying from the home.

However, R' Frand then quoted a deeper statement from the Pirkei D'Rebbi Eliezer which contradicts Rashi. It quotes a pasuk in Amos which states that He came to the house and placed his hand on the wall and was bitten by a snake. It explains that this is an allegorical reference to Ya'akov in that he went to his house (meaning the land of Israel) when he left the house of Lavan and he was bitten by a snake - Shechem Ben Chamor who bit him by raping his daughter Dina.

The Radal further develops the Pirkei D'Rebbi Eliezer who explains that when Ya'akov came to his home, his inheritance, he did not want to live in Shechem, because it was an evil city with promiscuous people. Rather than buying there, he bought property adjacent to Shechem, but was still close to the snake (HaChivi - snake in Aramaic) and even so, when he put his hand on the wall, he was still too close and he was bitten.

The Pirkei D'Rebbi Eliezer continues by quoting a Medrash which states that Dina was a tzenuah, she was modest and stayed in the house. But since Shechem wanted her, he arranged to have women outside the home and they were playing musical instruments. So Dina went out to see the women playing music and was grabbed by Shechem and raped and gave birth to Osnas. This version of events shows that Dina was not free spirited, she was modest and stayed at home and only went out to see the other girls.

What happened to Dina? The Ramban writes that she stayed home and lived with her brother Shimon, because she was shunned by society as she had become tamei in their eyes. She went down to Egypt with everyone else and when she died, Shimon took her up to the land of Israel and buried her there. It explains that she was buried in the city of Arbal, next to Nitai Ha'Arbeli.

R' Frand then quoted R' Ya'akov Slatus who notes that Nitai Ha'Arbeli is quoted one time in Shas - in Pirkei Avos. His statement is stay far from a bad neighbor and don't be friends with an evil person and do not give up hope when you have troubles. Why is she buried next to Nitai? Because his statement is that you need to stay away from bad neighbors and Dina was unfortunately proof of what happens if you don't stay away.

R' Frand then added to the vort by quoting his son, R' Ya'akov Frand who cites more of the story from the Pirkei D'Rebbi Eliezer, who notes that Ya'akov made an amulet for Osnas which had the name of Hashem and discussed her provenance. Thereafter the angel Micha'el took Osnas down to Egypt and dropped her in the home of Potiphar who had no children. And when Yosef came down to Egypt he encountered Osnas (there is a great Medrash which was not quoted in the shiur about how they met) and he married her. As a result of this marriage, there were two additional tribes - Ephraim & Menashe.

R' Frand said - this is also why Dina was buried next to Nitai - because his final statement in Pikei Avos was - don't give up because of the troubles. Although Dina had a hard life, the end result for her was that she was the grandmother of two more tribes, as her daughter was destined to marry Yosef.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

No comments: