Dinah
Leah Imeinu married Yaakov, after crying many tears because of anxiety regarding her possible marriage to Eisav. She never saw any good that Eisav could potentially have had if she would have married him. During the first several years of marriage, Leah gave birth six sons with Yaakov. In this time, Yaakov’s second wife, Rachel was still barren. As a result, Rachel told Yaakov to marry her maidservant, Bilha. Bilha then had 2 more sons. Because Leah was a Neviah, she prophesized that Yaakov was to have 12 sons and she wanted to have as many sons come from her offspring. So, even though Leah was not barren, she still decided to follow in Rachel’s ways and also gave her maidservant, Zilpah, as another wife to Yaakov. Zilpah, in
…show more content…
The concept of crying is part of the process of Teshuva, which is what Leah epitomized. Because Leah had this Midah, she would have had the power to influence Eisav for the better. However, the inner potential is not originally recognized, affecting Leah to aspire a marriage with Yaakov, not Eisav.
One can see that Dinah had the similar traits of her mother, Leah. Dinah could have changed the world with her influential Midah of Teshuvah. However, when the time came, she was not given the chance.
When Yaakov prepared his family to travel overseas to meet Eisav for the first time in many years, Yaakov only crossed his eleven children and wives. Dinah was hidden in a box, because Yaakov was scared that Eisav would take her as she was beautiful and he wanted to protect his daughter. Since Dinah had this tremendous quality of a Ba’al Teshuvah, she, if given the chance, could have been successful with completely changing Eisav to improve his ways. Even though, Yaakov understood this, he did not want to sacrifice his daughter to marry a Rasha. He knew his brother and knew of his capabilities. Yaakov would rather his daughter marry a tzaddik, which is understandable because a father always wants what is best for his children. As a result, Yaakov was punished for he should have exposed Dinah, knowing the potential that she could have had on