He took her, was with her, and mistreated her (Bereshis 34:2)

Last week, I had jury duty and like many people, was not looking forward to it. For numerous reasons, I did not want to be chosen for a trial and was very nervous that I would be chosen. I sat in the jury waiting room at 8am and began learning. At 11:30, thirty names were called to meet with a judge for him to decide who would be on the jury. I was one of the names called and was not happy. I was thinking, “this is bad.”

We were told to meet in the courtroom at 1pm for the judge to question us to see who would be the “lucky ones” chosen for the jury. At 1pm we all arrived at the designated area and the bailiff greeted us. He stated the accused person decided to plea bargain and therefore there would be no trial. We were all to go back upstairs to the jury waiting room to see if we would be chosen for a different trial. This was good.

I went upstairs and began learning again. Not more than 10 minutes later, an announcement came that the 30 individuals who were with the trial that was cancelled were to report to the hallway for reassignment. I began thinking that this was bad again. I didn’t want to have to go through questioning with a judge.

A woman who worked in the court took us to the hallway and did a roll call. Then she announced that since our trial was cancelled and there were enough people still inside the waiting room, they were going to let us out early. The people in the waiting room needed to stay until 5pm, but we could go home now (at 1:30pm). This is good!

This is life – events that look bad ultimately are for good. Since we do not have time machines nor can we see into the future, we do not immediately realize this, but if we think about all of the bad events in our past and follow them, we will realize it was really good that “bad” event happened.

In this week’s parsha, Dina is taken by force by Shechem. Not only that but Dina becomes pregnant from this low-life. Imagine how Dina must have felt. This is definitely a bad event!

But if we follow the events, we will see there is good that comes from this event. Dina gives birth to a baby girl. The baby is given a special medallion stating that she is Jewish and she is sent to Egypt. Years later, Yosef is being paraded around Egypt and Dina shows this medallion to Yosef. He realizes that she is the only Jewish woman in all of Egypt and marries her. Together they have two baby boys: one named Menashe and the other named Ephraim.

Every Friday night, fathers around the world give a blessing to their sons stating “May you be like Ephraim and Menashe.” The last thing many fathers say before they go to shul for Yom Kippur is this blessing for their children! Ephraim and Menashe forever are a symbol of how brothers are to behave. Forever their names are used as a blessing! Even though the act Shechem did was disgusting and he deserved the punishment he got, there is a silver lining to this event. Although it looked bad, in the end it was for the best.

This is true with every event that happens in our lives. Sometimes it might look sad and hopeless, but this is all for the best. Ultimately, something good will happen from it.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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