Parshat Vayishlach -- The real pain of the third day

By Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of Dec. 12, 2008 / 15 Kislev 5769

I can’t get the Holtzbergs out of my head. Not just because their images are all over the news and on every Jewish web site or because their deaths are an unshakable tragedy. And not just because I can’t stop thinking about their orphaned sons, especially two-year-old Moshe.

It is partly because the Holtzbergs were the same age as my wife and I, and as the Chabad messengers in Mumbai they were having the kind of impact on a community I dream of in my non-Chabad-trained world. But it is also because a very rare display of collective national unity has been evident ever since the first word of the attack on the Chabad center became apparent. There were no political undertones –– they were singled out because they were Jewish.

In Parshat Vayishlach, an unspeakable crime is committed against the young nation of Israel: the abduction and assault of Dina (Chapter 34). When her brothers learn of the attack, they “were saddened and very angry for an abomination had been carried out against Israel –– which can not be tolerated” (34:7).

In their immediate anger, they answer their enemies with “trickery” (34:13), agreeing to consider marrying the daughters of Shechem and vice versa if the males of Shechem circumcise themselves.

There are many midrashic and Talmudic discussions over whether all the Shechemites were culpable for what their prince had done. One thing, however, is clear: when the plan for peace and intermarriage was announced to the people of Shechem, the conditions were changed. Whereas the brothers had made clear that they would be calling the shots, King Hamor said “Their cattle, property and animals will all be ours” (34:23).

After the Shechemites circumcise themselves, the Torah tells us that Shimon and Levi took their swords “on the third day, when they were hurting” –– ‘be-h’yotam ko-avim’ –– and attacked the city.

Most interpret the “they” as the people of Shechem who were hurting from their circumcision. Rabbeinu Bachya mentions how the third day of anything is the most painful, and includes the third day post-op. We can postulate that adults have a different experience than babies, but as a mohel, I affirm that day three is certainly not most painful — day one is.

Chizkuni suggests the third day was emotionally painful because they could not believe they had agreed to go through with the circumcision deal. He also suggests that in practical numbers it took three days to circumcise all the men, so three days after the deal “all of them were hurting.”

Raabitz, however, has an interpretation which might just as well come from the Kotzker rebbe, known for his insightful ‘literal’ observations. He says that “on the third day, when they –– Dina’s brothers –– were hurting, they took their swords and attacked all the men of Shechem.” The pasuk is vague, after all, with a dangling modifier not clearly referring to the Shechemites or Dina’s brothers.

Which gets me back to the Holtzbergs. The first couple of days, we felt sadness, fear, worry and anger that such despicable non-humans could value life so little that they would take the lives of good innocent people –– all the Mumbai victims –– equally discriminating against men, women (including pregnant Rivka Holtzberg) and children of any race or religion other than their own.

And then when we found out the truth, on the third day, we felt genuine hurt. “On the third day, when the survivors of the original crime finally learned, felt, processed and understood — whatever it means to ‘understand’ the nature of the hate terrorists harbor –– the horror which was dealt unto the victims,” they felt a dreadful pain to which they did not know how to rationally respond.

Shimon and Levi took up arms. If we could, we might have taken the law into our own hands against these evil terrorists.

Instead we see how Chabad says, “We must respond by sending more people. By inspiring more people. By showing how we will not let these perpetrators of hate destroy everything we hold dear.”

Baruch she’hivdilanu min ha-to-im –– Blessed is He who separated us from those who are on the wrong path, who gave us a true Torah and implanted within us eternal life through our studying and living its principles.

Avi Billet welcomes your comments and thoughts at avbillet@gmail.com.