...there are those who way that Dinah was a twin to Zebulun
וספר הכתוב שיצאה דינה בת לאה אשר ילדה ליעקב לא לספר בגנותה שהיתה יצאנית בת יצאנית כדברי רש"י כי הנה לאה צנועה היתה עד שלצניעותה לא הכירה יעקב כשבא אליה. ומה שיצאה ליעקב לאמר אלי תבא וגו' אל פתח ביתה יצאה ולשם שמים נתכונה אבל הכתוב הזה בא לספר שבחה של דינה שלא קרה לה זה להיותה יצאנית בטבעה כי היא היתה בת לאה המלומדת לשבת בית כי רחל היתה רועה את הצאן ולאה לא היתה יוצאת החוצה. גם מפאת אביה שהיתה בת יעקב יושב אוהלים ואם היה אביה צנוע כל שכן בתו וזה מורה שלא יצאה לכוונה רעה חלילה אלא לראות בבנות הארץ לא אמר באנשי העיר וגם לא בבני העיר אלא בבנות העיר ר"ל לראות בבנות העיר במלבושיהן ותכשיטיהן יען לא היה בבית יעקב שום נערה בלתה והיא רצתה ללמוד מנערות העיר כדרך הבתולות
Abarbanel on Torah, Genesis 33:18:17
The Torah praises Dina the daughter of Leah. Leah went out joyfully and with holy intent to greet her husband Yaakov and from that came the birth of Yissachar, the tribe of modest Torah teachers. Yaakov himself was known to be a modest person, hiding in the tents of scholars. Dina had no sisters to guide her and so she went out to see how the girls of the town conducted themselves. ...
(א) ואי זה הוא הנחש, זה שכם בן חמור שהיתה בתו של יעקב יושבת אוהלים ולא היתה יוצאה לחוץ מה עשה שכם בן חמור הביא נערות משחקות חוצה לו מתופפות ויצאה דינה לראות בבנות הארץ המשחקות ושללה ושכב עמה והרתה וילדה את אסנת ואמרו בני ישראל להורגה שאמרה עכשו יאמרו בכל הארץ שיש בית זנות באהלי יעקב.
And who was the serpent? This was Shechem, the son of Chamor. Because the daughter of Jacob was abiding in the tents, and she did not go into the street; what did Shechem, the son of Chamor, do? He brought dancing girls who were (also) playing on pipes in the streets. Dinah went forth to see those girls who were making merry; and he seized her, and he slept with her, and she conceived and bare Asenath. The sons of Israel said that she should be killed, for they said that now people would say in all the land that there was an immoral daughter in the tents of Jacob.
(1) ותצא דינה בת לאה, she went forth from her mother’s tent, her father also not being at home, and she came into the town to get acquainted with other girls in the town. The reason why the Torah underscored that she was the daughter of Leah, a fact we are all familiar with, was to remind us “like mother like daughter.” Her mother had been described in 30,16 by the words ותצא לאה לקראתו, “Leah went forth to meet her husband,” suggesting that she took an initiative which was not common for her. The reason the Torah added another fact that we knew already, i.e. אשר ילדה ליעקב, “whom she had born for Yaakov,” is to alert us to the fact that what happened to her was a punishment for her father (as we explained in 32,23).
(יא) וַיִּקְחוּ אֶת דִּינָה (בראשית לד, כו), רַבִּי יוּדָן אָמַר גּוֹרְרִין בָּהּ וְיוֹצְאִין. אָמַר רַב הוּנָא הַנִּבְעֶלֶת לְעָרֵל קָשֶׁה לִפְרשׁ. אָמַר רַב הוּנָא אָמְרָה וַאֲנִי אָנָה אוֹלִיךְ אֶת חֶרְפָּתִי, עַד שֶׁנִּשְׁבַּע לָהּ שִׁמְעוֹן שֶׁהוּא נוֹטְלָהּ, הֲדָא הוּא דִכְתִיב (בראשית מו, י): וְשָׁאוּל בֶּן הַכְּנַעֲנִית, בֶּן דִּינָה שֶׁנִּבְעֲלָה לַכְּנַעֲנִי. רַבִּי יְהוּדָה וְרַבִּי נְחֶמְיָה וְרַבָּנָן, רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אָמַר שֶׁעָשָׂה כְּמַעֲשֵׂה כְּנַעֲנִים. רַבִּי נְחֶמְיָה אָמַר שֶׁנִּבְעֲלָה מֵחִוִּי שֶׁהוּא בִּכְלַל כְּנַעֲנִים. וְרַבָּנָן אָמְרִין נְטָלָהּ שִׁמְעוֹן וּקְבָרָהּ בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן.
Rabbi Natan says: Job lived in the days of the kingdom of Sheba, as it is stated: “And Sheba fell upon them, and took them away” (Job 1:15). And the Rabbis say: Job lived in the days of the kingdom of the Chaldeans in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, as it is stated: “The Chaldeans formed three bands” (Job 1:17). And some say that Job lived in the days of Jacob and that he married Dina, the daughter of Jacob. As it is written here: “You speak as one of the loathsome women speaks” (Job 2:10), and it is written there in the account of the incident involving Dina: “He has done a loathsome act in Israel” (Genesis 34:7). This concludes the text of the baraita. The Gemara comments: And all these tanna’im hold that Job was a Jew except for the opinion introduced with the phrase: And some say, according to which Job lived in the time of Jacob, and he was certainly not one of Jacob’s sons.
(יא) ויקחו את דינה - ר' יודן אמר: גוררין בה ויוצאין. אמר רבי הונא: הנבעלת לערל קשה לפרוש. אמר רבי הונא: אמרה: ואני אנה הוליך את חרפתי? עד שנשבע לה שמעון, שהוא נוטלה, הה"ד (שם מז): ושאול בן הכנענית, בן דינה שנבעלה לכנעני. ר' יהודה ור' נחמיה ורבנן, ר' יהודה אמר: שעשה כמעשה כנענים. ר' נחמיה אמר: שנבעלה מחוי, שהוא בכלל כנענים. ורבנן אמרין: נטלה שמעון וקברה בארץ כנען:
ויקחו את דינה. R' Yudin says: They dragged her out. R' Huna says: A woman who has intercourse with a gentile, it's hard to separate her [from him]. R' Huna says: She said: Where will I go with my shame? Until Shimon swore to her that he would take her, as it says: "Shaul the son of the Canaanite," the son of Dina who had relations with a Canaanite. R' Yehuda and R' Nehemiah and the Rabbis: R' Yehuda says: Because he did a deed like the Canaanites. R' Nehemiah says: Because she had relations with a Hivite, which is included among the Canaanites. And the Rabbis say: Shimon took her and buried her in the land of Canaan.
Three times, Abraham (Gen. 12 and 20) and Isaac (Gen. 26) are forced to leave home because of famine. Twice they go to Gerar. Once Abraham goes to Egypt. On all three occasions the husband fears he will be killed so that the local ruler can take his wife into his harem. All three times they put forward the story that their wife is actually their sister. At worst this is a lie, at best a half-truth. In all three cases the local ruler (Pharaoh, Avimelekh), protests at their behaviour when the truth becomes known. Clearly the fear of death was real or the patriarchs would not have been party to deception.
In the fourth case, Lot in Sodom (Gen. 19), the people cluster round Lot’s house demanding that he bring out his two visitors so that they can be raped. Lot offers them his virgin daughters instead. Only swift action by the visitors – angels – who smite the people with blindness, saves Lot and his family from violence.
In the fifth case (Gen. 34), Shechem, a local prince, rapes and abducts Dina when she “went out to visit some of the local girls.” He holds her hostage, causing Shimon and Levi to practise deception and bloodshed in the course of rescuing her....
The God of Abraham is the God of love and trust who does not impose His will by force or violence, but speaks gently to us, inviting an answering response of love and trust. Genesis’ argument against idolatry – all the more impressive for being told obliquely, through a series of stories and vignettes – is that it leads to a world in which the combination of unchecked sexual desire, the absence of a code of moral self-restraint, and the worship of power, leads eventually to violence and abuse.
That domestic violence and abuse still exist today, even among religious Jews, is a disgrace and source of shame. Against this stands the testimony of Genesis that faithfulness to God means and demands faithfulness to our marriage partners. Faith – whether between us and God or between us and our fellow humans – means love, loyalty and the circumcision of desire.
What the stories of the patriarchs and matriarchs tell us is that faith is not proto- or pseudo-science, an explanation of why the natural universe is as it is. It is the language of relationships and the choreography of love. It is about the importance of the moral bond, in particular as it affects our most intimate relations. Sexuality matters to Judaism, not because it is puritanical but because it represents the love that brings new life into the world.
When a society loses faith, eventually it loses the very idea of a sexual ethic, and the result in the long term is violence and the exploitation of the powerless by the powerful. Women suffer. Children suffer. There is a breakdown of trust where it matters most. So it was in the days of the patriarchs. Sadly, so it is today. Judaism, by contrast, is the sanctification of relationship, the love between husband and wife which is as close as we will ever get to understanding God’s love for us. (Rabbi Sacks What is the Theme of the Stories of Genesis? (Vayeshev 5777)
(ג) בת פוטיפרע. והלא בת דינה היתה, ושמענו כשבא יעקב אבינו משכם, כתב על טס של זהב, כל מה שאירע להם עם חמור בן שכם, וכשילדה דינה את אסנת, נתן הטס על צוארה, והשליכה בחומת מצרים, אותו היום יצא פוטיפר לטייל עם נעריו והגיעו עד לחומה, שמע קול בכיית ילוד, אמר אל נעריו הביאו לי את הילד הזה, וראה את הטס ואת המאורעות, אמר פוטיפר לעבדיו זאת הבת בת גדולים היא, הוליכוה לביתי והביאו לה מינקת, ובעבור שגדלה נקראת בתו, כי כן כתיב בדברי הימים ואלה בני מיכל, ובנביאים כתיב ולמיכל לא היה לה ולד עד יום מותה (ש"ב ו כג), אלא מפני שמיכל גדלה נקראו בניה, וכן פוטיפר:
The daughter of Potiphar. Was'nt she the daughter of Dina? We heard that when Jacob came from Shechem it is written: 'on a Golden Platter. Everything that occurred with Chamor son of Shechem. When Osnat was born to Dina, they put a platter on her neck and threw her into the walls of Egypt. That same day Potiphar wen for a walk with his servants and they arrived at the city walls. he heard the cry of a young girl and asked his servants to bring him the child. He saw the platter and said to his servants: "this is the daughter of great people, bring her to my house and bring a nursemaid for her. Since she was raised in her house, she was called his daughter. We see (that those raised in one's home is referred to as their child) this regarding Michal in Sefer Shmuel Bet.