The Reunion, the Rape of Dinah, and the Legacy of Amalek

When Brothers Embrace — And What We Can Learn

Here are the dynamics of the meeting between Jacob and Esau that we all ought to see: First, both approached the meeting with fear and insecurity. Each one had issues that seemed a legitimate cause to hate and desire to even kill his brother. The years passed and the two brothers matured and have families, and both realized that blood and family run much thicker than the floods of anger and hate. The brotherhood and family took precedence over the hate.

Second, the years that passed were good because some of the hate was softened by the time and by the fact that both brothers had families and succeeded in gathering wealth and even small armies. And the deep hate was softened by the light of the years and the maturity between the two twin brothers.

Third, Esau was also successful financially and with his family, and became a major chieftain and honorable person in the land. This forced Esau to reconsider and find room for forgiveness and reconciliation with his brother Jacob and his family.

Being unfair to your brother and taking advantage of his difficult situation is never wise. It is much wiser to be gracious and kind to your brothers. Seek peace and chase after peace. It is always wise to present yourself vulnerable and be humble when your friends and brothers are feeling that you have been unfair to each other and anger is brewing between you. Always be prepared for the worst, and hope for the best, when dealing with anger and hostility with your family and friends.

Finally, we today can learn that when friends and brothers fight, even when it is a fight that is totally reasonable, true strength and security has to come between warring friends and neighbors. Realizing that anger and past unfair treatment needs to be fixed with humility, dropping pride and reliance on militant strength, and coming with a spirit of reconciliation and peace — then can both sides come much closer to a peaceful landing and the restoration of peaceful relationship.

Blood is blood and reconciliation and peace between brothers is of great importance and never impossible. But, we learn from these biblical texts that when the conflict is so bitter and so long, even making a momentary peace like between Jacob and Esau, there is no guarantee that the next generations will not awake the demon from the bottle and release it — not only to start the enmity over again, but to make it more bitter and violent than before.

The Rape of Dinah — A Father's Curse

The other sad and very serious story in this Torah portion is the story of the rape of Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob that we know hardly anything about. The only reason why we know about this Dinah is because the son of the ruler of Shechem, Hamor ("donkey"), was in love with Dinah, and he raped and dishonored her.

Simeon and Levi, the two sons of Jacob, took action without Jacob's permission and tricked the men of Shechem to be circumcised, in order to take Dinah in marriage. And when they circumcised themselves, the children of Jacob attacked the men of Shechem and broke the contract and agreement between Jacob and the local inhabitants of the land of Canaan. Jacob never forgave his two sons for dishonoring and tricking the local inhabitants to be circumcised, and while suffering from the pain of circumcision, Simeon and Levi organized the murder of the men of Shechem.

Jacob never forgot the act of Simeon and Levi his two sons, and when Jacob was on his death bed blessing his sons, Jacob didn't bless them. He actually cursed these two boys:

A father's blessing of his children is very valuable for the rest of their lives. But, we learn from this Torah portion that even a father's curse is powerful and can bring unusual problems and calamities in the children's lives.

Amalek — The Legacy of Hate

The reconciliation between Jacob and Esau was a good thing, and it pacified five of his children. But the last son of Esau was Amalek. Amalek is the perennial enemy of Israel. It has been so from the battle of Israel and Amalek in the wilderness of Sinai, when Israel was trying to survive the desert wandering of 40 years. Aaron and Hur had to hold up the hands of Moses all throughout that war in order to have the Lord's victory over Amalek. In fact, Amalek is the only nation that Israel is commanded to delete their memory from the face of history:

Why is the Lord being so harsh toward Amalek, and not toward the other sons of Esau? My guess is that Amalek was raised and educated to hate Jacob and his children. The Torah makes a strange comment about Amalek — he was born to Esau's concubine Timna. My guess is that Amalek was ignored and harassed by his other brothers, and maybe even by his father Esau, and now he has to make it up by being mean and cruel. God abhors those who take advantage of the weary and the tired and the weak.

This is clear in the story of King Saul, when he spared Agag the king of the Amalekites, and hundreds of years later, Haman, the descendant of Agag the Amalekite, is the prime minister of Persia/Iran, and he still wants to delete all the Jews from the Persian Empire. This is the way that Amalek and his children were trained and educated — to hate, to ignore every standard of morality of right and wrong, and to get their way no matter how, who, or the number of lives will be sacrificed to achieve their desires.

When I think of the way that children in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria are educated, I think of Amalek and the deep infernal hate that they have toward Israel, the sons of Jacob and the Jews. Israel didn't, and will not be guilty of ethnic cleansing or genocide, especially not after the Holocaust of World War II in Europe. I am praying for reconciliation between our Arab cousins and Israel and the Jewish nation.