Dinah Was a Boy at First (Vayishlach)

After six sons, Leah knew that she was pregnant with another boy. She would then have a disproportionate number of boys, seven out of twelve. So Leah judged that it would not be fair and prayed that the child's gender would be changed to a girl. That is why the baby's name was "Dinah" which means "Judgement." Dinah is called "naar," which means a boy, but when the Torah is read in the synagogue, this word is pronounced "naarah," which means a girl.

Since it was Leah who caused Dinah to be born a girl, Dinah is called Leah's daughter, "And Dinah, Leah's daughter, went out."

Dinah was the reincarnation of Eve. Dinah's abductor, Shechem ben Chamor the Hivite, was the reincarnation of the initial Snake. The word "Hivite" means a snake in Aramaic. Since he has injected poison into Eve, his only desire was to stay connected to her, this time as Dinah. After Shechem was circumcised, his correction in life was complete, and he was killed, having nothing left to do.

Art: Jacob persuades Leah and Rachel to flee by Pieter Potter