Komentarz do Rodzaju 34:31

הכזונה implies as one unprotected.

?הכזונה, only a harlot does not have anyone standing up in her defense, avenging violence done to her. יעשה, “shall the people who you are afraid of rising up against us be allowed to get away with such conduct? את אחותנו, who was not a harlot. It is incumbent upon us to avenge her disgrace. Once the inhabitants of the region will understand this they will have no reason to attack us.”

ויאמרו הכזונה יעשה את אחותינו, They said: "Should we have let him treat our sister like a harlot?" We need to understand how such a reply could have had any bearing on Jacob's concern for the survival of his family in a possible confrontation with the other Emorites in the region? After all, Jewish law provides that if the surrender of a specific individual is demanded by enemy forces as a condition to save the lives of the remaining prisoners, then such an individual must be surrendered (Jerusalem Talmud Terumah chapter eight) in order to save the lives of all the people who this individual is part of. There is no requirement for all the people to become martyrs even if the alternative is the commission of a serious crime of ערוה, incest or other sexual crime. Seeing that this is so before such a sin has been committed, it is all the more so after the crime has already been committed and cannot be reversed!

?ויאמרו הכזונה, is Shechem to be allowed to treat our sister as if she were a harlot, and we should not avenge the shame she was subjected to?

הכזונה יעשה את אחותנו, “is our sister to be treated like a whore?” Rashi wrote כתרגומו ית אחתנא, but I have not been able to understand what he had in mind.

Abandoned. Rashi is answering the question: Only a woman who willingly abandons herself to relations with any man is called a harlot. If so, how could Shechem possibly make her a harlot, when she did not willingly abandon herself? Thus Rashi explains [that here it means] “abandoned.” I.e., Shechem acted as if she was [property that has been] abandoned.

?הכזונה יעשה את אחותנו, ,“is he (Sh’chem) to be allowed to treat our sister as if she were a harlot?” Rashi explains the word את in this phrase as emphasising the singular mode as the word אחותנו, occurs several times in the Bible in the plural mode although not spelled in the plural mode with the letter י. [In Aramaic it would then have to be spelled אחותנא instead of אחתנא.

אחותנו The Targum renders it as an accusative — ית אחתנא “our sister”,) so that the meaning is: Should one (be permitted to) make our sister become as a woman who has no-one to protect her (Genesis Rabbah 80:12).

To our sister. Rashi is answering the question: Perhaps הכזונה should be interpreted as missing a ב, as if it said הכבזונה עשה את אחותינו? Then it would mean, “Should he do with our sister as one does with a harlot?” Accordingly, זונה would indeed mean harlot, [contrary to Rashi’s explanation of “abandoned”]. Therefore Rashi cites Onkelos who translates [את as] ית, proving that it does not mean “with.” This explains why Rashi said that הכזונה means “abandoned.”

Perhaps the brothers merely wanted to calm the fears of their father saying that a confrontation with the Emorites would be a real danger only if they had killed the people of Shechem without an adequate reason. Under the circumstances, when kidnapping and rape had been committed, they did not think the other Emorites would raise much of a fuss. Legally speaking, of course, Shechem had not been guilty of harlotry seeing Dinah had been unattached at the time. Categories of sexual intercourse forbidden to the Gentiles include only homosexuality, adultery, bestiality, and intercourse with the sister of the same mother.

It is also possible that the brothers considered their action as one that would serve notice on the Emorites not to take liberties with their family. Having seen what happened to an individual who used violence against a member of Jacob's family, the Emorites would take this to heart and be forewarned of the consequences of such deeds in the future.