Dvar Torah on Parshat Vayishlach

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Attributed to Edmund Burke.

This week's parsha contains one of the Bibles' more problematic and challenging stories: the rape of Dinah. Yaakov has just settled with his family back in the land of Canaan, and almost immediately his daughter Dinah is raped and kidnapped by Shechem, one of the local princes. Immediately after this outrage is committed, with Dinah still being held by him, Shechem and his father approach Yaakov and his sons - Dinah's brothers - and ask to arrange a marriage between the rapist and his victim, and, in fact, an alliance between the people of Israel and the people of Shechem (Shechem is both the name of the city and the name of the prince of the city, sort of like the Prince of York being called "York").

Yaakov's sons respond positively, making only one demand: if Shechem and Dinah are to marry, the men of Shechem must undergo circumcision, and become like the Israelites. The Shechemites agree, and three days later, when they are in great pain from the operation, Shimon and Levi, two of Yaakov's sons, enter the city, kill all of its male inhabitants, and take the women and children as captives. Yaakov, apparently surprised by the duplicity and violence of the brothers, angrily condemns their actions, both here in our parsha and years later, on his death bed.

The Rabbis have discussed the question of the morality of Shimon and Levi's behavior at length. Maimonides (also known as the Rambam, an acronym for Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, 1135-1204) is of the opinion that the brothers were justified in what they did because the men of Shechem were in fact all guilty of a capital crime. The Rambam explains that, according to the seven Noachide commandments, the code of law which, according to Jewish tradition, binds all sons of Noah (all of humankind), the people of Shechem were obligated to have set up a legal system, with laws, policemen, courts, and judges. Their failure to do so, which allowed Shechem to commit and get away with the crimes of rape and kidnapping, is, therefore, itself a crime, punishable by death, which Shimon and Levi quite appropriately meted out to them.

Other commentators, taking their cue from Yaakov's anger at what his sons did, disagree with the Rambam, and feel that Shimon and Levi overreacted, and were wrong to kill the entire population. I would imagine that most, if not all of us would agree with this approach, and find it hard to go along with the Rambam's draconian understanding of the guilt of the entire populace. I would like to, however, think a bit about the Rambam's position, and see what it implies about the individual, society, and responsibility.

For us to make sense of the Rambam's position, we would need to posit a fairly liberal and democratic city of Shechem, in which the citizens could be expected to try and punish their wayward prince. It would seem that, according to the Rambam's understanding of the Noachide laws, the failure to set up such a society, one in which even the most powerful citizens are subject to the rule of law, is precisely where the citizens of Shechem sinned, and became guilty of a capital crime. Once a serious crime, such as the rape and kidnapping of Dinah, had been committed, and there was no legal system to bring the criminal to justice, it became clear to Shimon and Levi that this is a community which does not deserve to exist; its members have failed in the most basic way to create a just, responsible society, and are therefore, in fact, complicit in Shechem's crime, and deserve, as he does, to be punished.

If this is the case, Maimonides is, in fact, making a remarkable demand on each and every one of us. According to him, the seven Noachide laws, the most basic blueprint for a just society, include the demand to set up a society where the individual is able, and therefore expected to, respond to injustice and oppression, even, and perhaps especially, when they are committed by the ruling classes of that society. The claim, which to us would seem a fairly natural and reasonable one for the people of Shechem to make - "what do you want from us, he's the prince, we don't have the power or right to bring him to justice, or question his actions" - is, according to Maimonides, no claim at all, no excuse. We, as citizens, are obliged to create a society in which crime does not go unpunished, in which the rich and powerful are not able to oppress the weak, poor and downtrodden with impunity, and, once we have created such a society, we are obliged to be on constant guard to insure that its rules and laws are obeyed by all. Failure to do so would make the citizens actually complicit in the crimes committed.

Although the 'solution' that Shimon and Levi came up with - killing all the citizens of Shechem - is certainly a hard one for us to accept, as it was for Yaakov, I think there is much of value in the basic assumption behind their act, as understood by the Rambam. The notion that we are all ultimately responsible for the morality of the societies in which we live, that we must all feel that we are bound to act when oppression or criminal behavior is taking place, and if we do not, we will be held responsible for our inaction, for our complicity, is an extremely powerful and humane one. Imagining a 1930's Germany in which citizens took these responsibilities seriously, or a current-day Palestinian society for that matter, may give us a better understanding of the power and importance of this idea. A society in which each and every one of us feels responsible for the moral and ethical behavior of our fellow citizens, and our government, is surely something for which we should all be working.

Shabbat Shalom,

RabbiShimon Felix