Kommentar zu Bereschit 30:21

דינה DINAH (Judgment) — Our Rabbis explained, that Leah set herself up as judge (דנה) against herself saying: “If this be a son, my sister Rachel cannot be even the equal of any of the handmaids”. She, therefore, offered prayer regarding it, and its sex was changed (Berakhot 60a).

ותקרא את שמה דינה. No mention is made of Leah giving thanks to the Lord for giving birth to a daughter, seeing that one does not express gratitude for bearing a daughter in the same degree as one does for bearing a son. The reason that the birth of this daughter is mentioned is to inform us that with the exception of this one girl Yaakov’s children were all males. The same thing is true of the daughter of Asher, Serach being mentioned; (46,17) among all the 70 Israelites descending to Egypt only two were females.

ואחר ילדה בת, it would appear that originally Dinah was meant to become Zevulun’s twin (brother). This is why the Torah wrote ואחר ילדה בת, without making any mention of Leah again becoming pregnant. The Torah did not even write ותלד עוד. No mention is made of why she named the girl Dinah. There is a well known aggadic explanation that Leah did not want her sister to be shamed in having fewer sons than even the handmaids; her prayer to that effect was answered by this fetus becoming a girl.

ואחר ילדה בת, “after that she bore a daughter.” In this instance the Torah fails to mention that Leah was pregnant prior to giving birth. The Midrash explains the real pregnancy producing Dinah (should have ?) commenced with Rachel who was supposed to give birth to Dinah. However, Leah her sister prayed, asking that Rachel should not become embarrassed by producing fewer sons than either of the maid servants. As a result of this prayer, the embryo in Leah’s womb at that time was changed to being a female and was born as a girl. [The Talmud Berachot 60 attributes the prayer to Leah who was pregnant, but does not mention the transfer of an embryo to her womb. According to the version in the Bereshit Rabbah 72,6 before me, the embryo was not transferred, but its sex was changed, something which the Midrash claims is possible even at a much later stage, such as the woman being already on the birth stool. Rachel had prayed for one more son, G’d fulfilling her prayer later when Binyamin was born. There is no reason to believe that Rachel was pregnant at the time Yaakov left Lavan, as she could hardly have claimed to be menstruating when her father searched her tent for the teraphim in Genesis 31,35 if she had been pregnant. The Talmud warns that a miracle such as occurred here, should not be used as a precedent for praying for male or female children, after the pregnancy has been in effect for 40 days. Ed.]

ותקרא את שמה דינה, “she called her name Dinah.” According to Rashi, the word is reminiscent of דנה,”she judged;” When Leah had become pregnant with Joseph, she prayed that the next baby should be a female, as a result G–d heard her prayer and Leah’s next birth was Dinah. When the Torah writes uncharacteristically: ואחר ילדה בת, “and subsequently she gave birth to a daughter,” this is a hint that during most of her pregnancy the fetus had been a male fetus.

ואחר ילדה בת, “afterwards she gave birth to a daughter.” This is the only time that the mother has not first been described as becoming pregnant. Our author uses this as proof at Dinah was a twin sister of Zevulun. (This interpretation is quoted also by Ibn Ezra, B’chor shor, and David Kimchi.) An alternate exegesis: the reason why no mention has been made of a pregnancy here is that originally, this child was supposed to be another male. Leah prayed that it would become a female, as otherwiseseeing that Yaakov was destined to sire 12 sons,Rachel could not have given birth to two sons. The fetus which would have been Joseph thus became Dinah. (Compare Rashi, whose source is an opinion in the Talmud B’rachot,60 a well as the Targum Yonathan ben Uzziel [older than the Talmud. Ed.])