The Demand for Circumcision...

Torah Study. Genesis 34:8-12. 13

Shechem begs for Dinah as his wife...

Negotiations, bride price

Hamir. Shechem's father negotiates to merge the people...

V13: how the sons of Jacob respond to the offer

Deception... Bim mem mah ...different translations.  

With cunning, cleverly...

Read in two ways.  

Effects the image... Is it smart or sneaky deceit?

Three other places in the Jacob story.Where the word used in other places...27:35 stolen the birthright.  Not clear if clever or deceitful .

29:25 also use the same word...Leigh rather than Rachael?

Jacob is absent from this negotiation...it is the sons.  Shift in the role of Jacob in the story.  The sons have a plan.  

About circumcision ...they demand circumcision... 

They can't give sister to uncircumcised  man.

Classical Biblical type scene...

Robert Alter on v14. Cannot do this thing..ignore the offer  but note the point of circumcision,, first time circumcision is mentioned in any form of conversion to Judaism.

Conversion ceremony today includes circumcision or a reference to that.

Parallels the story of Saul and David and the bride price of 100 foreskins of the Philistines.

Lack of connection to the covenant and to God in the requirement for circumcision... Strategy to weaken them.   

Type scene - Foreskin connected to sexual impurity and linked to violent actions.   

Even in the Chanukah story is connected ...the big sin of Antiochus was to ban circumcision.