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Summary Of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

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Summary Of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Much of this week's Torah portion may be familiar to you from such films as "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." While the story of Joseph and his brothers is ripe with lessons on sibling relationships, avoiding temptation, and using interpretation to one's own advantage, I'd like to focus today on a few lesser-talked about characters in this drama: the women.

To begin, let's go back a week to Vayishlach, which, as Daniel discussed in the previous Moishe Moment, mainly describes Jacob's fraught meeting with his estranged brother, Esau. Again, I'd like to skip over the men and jump instead to the fascinating (and very disturbing) story of Dinah. In short, Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, goes out to the fields and is violated ("ye'aneha") by Shechem, a Hivvite. Despite Shechem's heartfelt plea to marry Dinah and make things right with the sons of Jacob (including circumcising his whole town), Dinah's brothers are furious that their sister's honor has been besmirched. Simeon and Levi proceed to slaughter Shechem and all of his people, plundering their wealth in the process. Not exactly a morality tale.
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We know nothing of what actually took place between Dinah and Shechem and how she felt about the whole situation. In "The Red Tent," Anita Diamant solves this problem by taking Dinah as her narrator, exploring her desires and inner thoughts. However, as it is written in the Torah, Dinah comes off as a flat character - a sister, a daughter, a virtuous, pure woman, shamed by a man and avenged by other

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