The Thirteenth Tribe
Gellman, Marc
THE THIRTEENTH TRIBE A MIDRASH BY MARC GELIMAN And afterwards she bore a daughter, and called her name Dina. (Genesis 30:21 And Jacob rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two...
...Because of Jacob's fear, his daughter Dina had never married into her own tribe, but because of Joseph's love, Osnath...
...However, Joseph's wife, Osnath the daughter of Dina the daughter of Jacob, pleaded with him for compassion and mercy...
...How do we know that Dina was actually taken back into Jacob's camp when Scripture only states that they "took Dina out of Shechem's house, and went away...
...Justice would have been served by such a union...
...One version: Girls don't matter...
...give them a chance to prove themselves...
...Another story recounts that Dina became the wife of Simeon and bore him Shaul, who is described by Scripture as "Simeon's son by aCanaanite woman...
...He knew that Justice would be served if he arrested them and punished them for their crime of abandoning him in the desert when he was a little boy...
...On the third day after the circumcision, Simeon and Levi, Dina's brothers, entered the city of Shechem unmolested, slew all the males, and took their sister Dina out of the tent of Shechem and back home to the camp of Jacob...
...When Pharaoh ordered Joseph to marry, he picked Osnath the daughter of Potiphar...
...He feared that Esau would kill him...
...That day when the verdict spoken from the throne of Justice will not differ from the verdict spoken from the throne of Mercy...
...Osnath was there and, since she had nothing else to throw, she threw her precious amulet to Joseph...
...In one version, these stories are the end...
...So Joseph set up a test for his brothers...
...Marc Gellman, a moment contributing editor and rabbi of Temple Beth Torah in Dix Hills, New York, frequently writes midrashim for these pages...
...Dina would marry within her kin, and the reconciliation with Esau would be justly signified...
...Leah raised her voice to God, "Lord God...
...So, another version: The thirteenth tribe in Heaven is the Shechina, the symbol of God divided and awaiting messianic restoration into a male/female unity once again—just as Dina is the thirteenth tribe on earth, the symbol of mankind divided against womankind and awaiting the reunification of the world that will only come in that day for which we act and pray...
...That day when all nations shall flow unto Jerusalem and call out God's name in a single voice...
...On that day...
...Justice would have been served if Joseph had found safety in Egypt and married an Egyptian woman...
...Why does Scripture say that he had only eleven children...
...God, however, knew that Justice would have been served had the child been a boy—but He remembered that Justice is not the only throne in Heaven...
...32:23) Why does Scripture state, "eleven children," when Jacob had twelve children at the time...
...On that day the eyes of Dina's daughters will not reflect the terror of ravaging Shechems and brutalizing Esaus...
...This part of God is always spoken of as feminine, sometimes the matronit, sometimes the Sabbath Queen, most often as the Shechina, God's indwelling presence...
...In the world to come, which we are beginning to glimpse with God's help, both sons and daughters will inherit the legacy of Israel with common claim and common justice...
...She, Leah, had borne him Reuben (his first-born), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun and now the child growing in her womb...
...34:1-2) When the sons of Jacob heard of their sister's disgrace they decided to kill Shechem and his tribe, but...
...Another version: Joseph selected Simeon because Simeon did not need to be tested...
...In this world which our forefathers knew, a woman could not inherit property from her father unless he had no sons...
...The medieval legends of Jewish mysticism formed in Spain and Israel reveal a clue to the mystery of redemption...
...Remember, Justice is not the only throne in Heaven...
...Thus, Osnath, daughter of Dina daughter of Jacob, became the wife of Joseph...
...He feared that he might kill Esau...
...One version: The brothers refused to designate a hostage...
...Soon after, the entire family of Jacob, his wives and his handmaidens, his twelve sons and his one daughter, were living in peace and prosperity in the land of Goshen, in the north of Egypt...
...Joseph took Simeon by chance...
...Jacob's granddaughter, married the only Israelite in Egypt...
...Rav Pappa said to Abaye: 'Might it not be said [to refer] merely [to] public service?'" However, others taught that the thirteenth portion was for the Messiah, and others still that the thirteenth portion was for the tribe of Levi...
...Dina's name is the only name of all of Jacob"s children that the Scripture does not explain...
...Perhaps the sons of Leah no longer despise the sons of Rachel...
...Dina, whose name means Justice, but who is the symbol of Mercy in our tradition...
...On that day their eyes will be transfixed by the glory of God that will be spread before us all...
...The Master has said, "The Land of Israel will in time to come be divided among thirteen tribes...
...When God was deciding whether or not to create man, He was sitting on the throne of Justice...
...After leaving behind Esau and the ford of the Jabbok...
...Then God revealed to Leah that Jacob was to have twelve sons...
...So what did God do...
...Do not do to them as they have done to you...
...34:26) Later in the list of all those who accompanied Jacob down into Egypt and after the sons of Leah and the grandsons of Leah are mentioned by name...
...Genesis 32:23 Jacob had twelve children when he crossed the Jabbok...
...Why did Simeon and Levi bring Dina back to the camp...
...When Jacob and his flocks and his wives and his twelve children (for Benjamin had not yet been born) arrived at the Jab-bok River, which was the boundary of Seir, the kingdom of Esau, Jacob was afraid...
...being fewer in number, they devised a crafty plan...
...Leah understood what that meant: If the child she was carrying was another son, then Rachel could only bear one son to Jacob, and so Rachel would be despised by the handmaidens Bilhah and Zilpah, each of whom had already borne two sons...
...Persons in all, male and female, thirty-three...
...Among his fears was the fear that Esau might demand to marry Dina as a sign of reconciliation...
...But there is another version: The thirteenth portion is for the thirteenth child of Jacob...
...God moved to the throne of Mercy, and sat there while He created man...
...Why did Joseph choose Simeon as a hostage when Reuben was the eldest...
...But Osnath's presence in the camp reminded everyone of Dina's tragedy and so, the story goes, Jacob fashioned for her an amulet with her name, "Osnath the daughter of Dina the daughter of Jacob," and sent her off to Egypt...
...There, she was taken into the house of Potiphar, chief steward to Pharaoh...
...46:7) If Dina went down into Egypt, she must have come up out of the tent of Shechem...
...As Joseph locked up Simeon to await the brothers' return, he placed a hand on Simeon's shoulder and assured him with comforting words: "Fear not my brother...
...One version: Girls' names need not be explained...
...Because she was not counted in this world, when Jacob and his household crossed the Jabbok River to enter the Land, she will be counted in the world to come, when the Messiah enters the Land...
...Genesis 30:21 And Jacob rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two maidservants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok...
...Remember the plight of Sarah, O my Lord, who was despised in the eyes of Hagar when Hagar bore Ishmael to her husband, Abraham...
...Whenever the children of Israel sin, the story goes, and God is ready to sit, as it were, on the throne of Justice and judge them, the Shechina, so it is said, comes to the defense of sinful Israel by first chastising Israel, and then by reminding God quietly, as a lover speaks to her beloved...
...in another version, they are only the beginning of Dina's story...
...Leah, the wife of Jacob, knew that she would again bear a child, her seventh, and the eleventh in the family of Jacob...
...33:18) Why is it necessary to state, "Jacob arrived safe in the city of Shechem...
...Remember, 1 pray you, that the same brothers who cast you out took my mother in after she was attacked and imprisoned in the tent of Shechem...
...But from this point on, only those who truly listen can hear her name in the words of the story...
...Remember and have mercy, O God of Mercy...
...But Jacob did not want to subject his only daughter to a life of misery with his boorish, violent, wild-ass of a brother, so as an act of mercy, Jacob hid Dina in a casket and sent her across the Jabbok...
...Joseph had learned of Simeon's great mercy in protecting Dina by bringing her back to the camp of Jacob...
...Justice would have been served if the sons of Jacob had cast out the daughter of Jacob...
...Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite, chief of the country, saw her, and took her and lay with her by force...
...Leah understood that God had been sitting on the throne of Justice by making her, the least loved wife, the most fertile...
...Another version: Dina was hidden, not forgotten, because Justice is not the only throne in Heaven...
...Later Rachel conceived and gave birth to her first child, Joseph...
...Soon after, Leah gave birth to a girl child to whom she gave the name of Dina...
...Joseph demanded that Benjamin, his brother and the only son of Rachel, be brought down to Egypt, and he kept Simeon in the palace while the other brothers returned to Canaan...
...One legend tells that she lived as a widow and recluse until her death in Egypt, when she was brought back to the land of Canaan by Simeon and buried on the road to Arbel...
...His most recent, "The Last Hineni," was printed in September 1982...
...Scripture says, "Jacob arrived safe in the city of Shechem...
...He realized that because of the wickedness that would spring from man, Justice would not allow man to be created...
...All the daughters of the city gathered on the walls to throw flowers and gifts into his chariot...
...They convinced Shechem to have himself and all his men circumcised as the bridal price for a marriage with Dina...
...The handmaidens Bilhah and Zilpah had borne Dan, Naftali, Gad and Asher to Jacob...
...What our ancestors learned and taught in this instance was custom, not law, for law without justice is incomplete—just as the children of Jacob were incomplete until Dina was numbered among them...
...x "Furthermore it was taught: The Land of Israel will in time to come be divided between thirteen tribes even though at first [when the land of Israel was first enteredj it was divided only among twelve tribes and was divided only according to monetary values...
...Scripture says...
...That day when the daughters of Jacob and the sons of Jacob will each count and each be counted in the Book of Eternal Life...
...Still another version tells that Dina bore a daughter from her union with Shechem whom she named Osnath, meaning the daughter of violent tragedy...
...Dina is the thirteenth tribe...
...Those were the sons whom Leah bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram...
...Another version: There was a disagreement over the meaning of the name...
...When the sons of Jacob came down to Egypt to buy food for their starving families, the grand vizier of Egypt, Joseph, their brother, knew them at once...
...There is a story that says that at some time—no one knows whether it was the moment of the creation of the world, the time of Adam and Eve's sin or the time of the exile of Israel when the second Temple was destroyed—at that time, God divorced, as it were, a part of himself and sent that part into exile with the people Israel, to accompany them on their wanderings and eventually lead them to the messianic time and place...
...A story is preserved in the Talmud, in Baba Bathra 122a...
...Scripture tells us, "And Jacob rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two maidservants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok...
...And so the thirteenth tribe, the tribe of Dina, does not symbolize Justice alone, but Mercy for all Israel as well...
...Leah thought that the meaning of her name was "Justice (Din...
...It is to emphasize that Jacob did not leave the city of Shechem in safety, for it is written, "Now Dina, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land...
...Are these old and sparse legends the end of the story of Jacob's only daughter...
...The custom of those ancient times was to abandon women who had been attacked in such a manner...
...The stories of Dina's remaining life in the camp of Jacob are strange and very old...
...in addition to his daughter Dina...
...Rav Hisda said, 'For the prince of the land...
...Justice, however, is not the only throne in Heaven...
...Does our tradition have more to teach about Dina...
...However, Simeon and Levi knew that Justice is not the only throne in Heaven...
...He caught the necklace, opened the amulet and realized that the maiden standing on the wall was his niece...
...While giving birth to Benjamin, her second...
...He learned of this from his wife Osnath, the daughter of Dina...
...Jacob and his camp journeyed to Succoth and then to Shechem...
...which is in the land of Canaan...
...Justice is not the only throne in Heaven...
...For whom is that [extra portion...
...An old midrash tells that there are two thrones in Heaven, the throne of Justice and the throne of Mercy...
...1 pray that you might make the child in my womb a girl child so that my sister Rachel can bear two sons to our husband Jacob and not be despised in her own house...
...But the beloved Rachel was still barren, and in an act of sisterly love and compassion, Leah prayed to God to open the womb of her sister Rachel and allow her to conceive a child...
...Rachel died, and she was buried on the road to Bethlehem...
...The author's name has been forgotten or cannot be pronounced...
...Joseph the son of Jacob was also in Potiphar's house but he did not suspect that Osnath was his niece until the day when he rode through the city on a parade of triumph, being honored for rescuing Egypt from the famine...
Vol. 7 • October 1982 • No. 9
