Determinación de los ejes a partir de diámetros conjugados

Dinah

According to Genesis (32–36) Dinah was the only daughter among Jacob’s 13 offspring (see PATRI

-ARCHS). After her birth, the text does not mention her until she has sexual relations with Shechem, a prince of CANAAN, after going out to the fields alone. Shechem takes her to his city and asks Jacob for her hand in marriage. Many commentators insist she was raped, while others maintain that the relations were consensual. In either case, Shechem’s behavior was wrong in contemporary eyes, and Dinah’s brothers consider their family dishonored.

The brothers decide to take revenge. They convince Shechem and his townsmen to become circumcised as a condition of marriage (see BRIT

MILAH). While the men are recuperating, Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi slaughter Shechem and his followers and despoil the town. Jewish tradi-tion generally considers the brothers’ violent behavior problematic; the fact that an entire com-munity received severe punishment for the sin of one individual is also disturbing to many biblical commentators.

Dinah’s own silence throughout her ordeal has been highlighted by modern commentators. A lit-erature has appeared expressing the story from her perspective, to better understand how she may have felt after being raped. One novel, The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, fleshes out the sugges-tion that Dinah had consented to relasugges-tions with Shechem and wished to marry him. The novel gives voice to Dinah and her mother and aunts; it is a story about the MATRIARCHS that provides a good example of modern MIDRASH.

Rape, although treated somewhat differently in biblical times, remains an unacceptable violent crime. Many modern Jews use the story of Dinah as a means to teach against rape, date rape, and abusive relationships.

Further reading: Anita Diamant, The Red Tent (New York: Picador, U.S.A., 1998); Ellen Frankel, Five Books of Miriam: A Woman’s Commentary on the Torah (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998); Judith Plaskow, Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism From A Feminist

Per-spective (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990);

Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures (Philadelphia and Jerusalem: The Jewish Publication Society, 1985).

disputations

Disputations were public debates between Christ-ian and Jewish scholars in the Middle Ages. The Jews were always coerced to participate in these debates, which were aimed at demonstrating that Christianity was the “true religion.”

Three famous disputations recorded by the church each pitted a Jewish convert to CHRISTIAN

-ITYagainst a Jewish scholar, who had to demon-strate why a Jew should not depart from his faith.

In effect, the Jewish participant had no choice but to endanger his own life by philosophically attacking Christianity.

The first of these three disputations occurred in Paris, FRANCE, in 1240. Rabbi Jehiel of Paris and other rabbis defended the TALMUD against the accusations of Nicholas Donin, who asserted that the work denigrated the character of JESUS OF

NAZARETH. Rabbi Jehiel, while defending the authenticity of Judaism, was not able to cast Jesus in a positive light. As a result 24 cartloads of Tal-mud scrolls were burned, resulting in a severe shortage of Talmudic texts in Europe.

The second disputation took place in Barcelona in 1263, between Pablo Christiani and the Talmu-dic scholar NACHMONIDES. King James I of Aragon oversaw this debate and ensured that Nach-monides received fair treatment, so he could fully express the Jewish perspective. The debate focused on the Christian assertion that Jesus was divine and was the MESSIAHpredicted in the TANAKH, the Hebrew Bible. Nachmonides was able to control the conflict by showing that Judaism placed signif-icantly less emphasis on the messianic notion. He later wrote that King James rewarded him with 300 gold coins for his debating skill; nevertheless, he was pressured to leave SPAIN for PALESTINE soon after the disputation concluded.

The third disputation was held in Tortosa from 1413 to 1415. This time the disputants were the disputations 117 J

Christian Gerónimo de Santa Fe and Rabbi Astruk Halevi, Rabbi Joseph Albo, and other Jewish schol-ars, including a descendant of Nachmonides. Rabbi Albo’s views on Christianity became the foundation for his later work Sefer Ha-Ikkarim. The Tortosa disputations lasted 20 months, fanning anti-Jewish sentiment that forced many Jews to convert (see

ANTI-JUDAISM).

Further reading: Jane S. Gerber, The Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience (New York: The Free Press, 1992); Hyam Maccoby, ed. Judaism on Trial: Jew-ish Christian Disputations in the Middle Ages (Portland, Ore.: Vallentine Mitchell, 1993).

Disraeli, Benjamin

Born in London on December 21, 1804, Benjamin Disraeli was the son of a scholar of history and lit-erature. His father, Isaac Disraeli, had his son pri-vately educated and then trained as a solicitor. Born Jewish, Benjamin Disraeli is considered to be Britain’s first Jewish prime minister, although he was a practicing Anglican, having been baptized by his father at age 13 following the death of Isaac Dis-raeli’s father. Isaac had never been attached to Judaism, and Benjamin himself viewed Christianity as the highest development of Judaism. His baptism allowed him to serve in the British parliament early in his career, though practicing Jews were forbid-den to do so until 1858. In 1839 he married Wyn-dham Lewis, a wealthy widow. Though never a practicing Jew, Disraeli’s membership in an often despised minority group influenced his politics throughout his life. He occasionally acknowledged his membership among the Jewish people, espe-cially in response to antisemitic taunts.

Disraeli, like his father, was a scholar of litera-ture, and he published several novels: Vivian Grey (1826), The Young Duke (1831), Contarini Fleming (1832), Alroy (1833), Henrietta Temple (1837), and Venetia (1837). These novels reflect Disraeli’s per-sonal ambition and his desire to be a “great man.”

In the early 1830s Disraeli took an interest in

pol-itics, and in 1837 he was elected to the House of Commons. Disraeli became a progressive Tory, very sympathetic to the rights of laborers. In 1842 Disraeli helped to create the Young England group, which held the political aim of aligning the tocracy and the working class. He wanted the aris-tocracy to use its economic and political power to help protect the poor; his novels Coningsby (1844), Sybil (1845), and Tancred (1847) reflected this consistent Disraeli theme.

Disraeli continued to climb in stature and position in Parliament. In 1867 he proposed and managed to pass a new Reform Act that gave the right to vote to all male adult householders living in a borough constituency. This politically empowered 1.5 million new voters. The Reform Act also redrew the constituencies and boroughs, in a way that helped Disraeli become prime min-ister for a brief period in 1868, until the liberals regained control after a new general election. Dis-raeli led the Conservative Party in opposition for six years. In 1874 he led the Tories to their first General Election victory in over 36 years.

During his tenure as prime minister, Disraeli managed to pass many social reforms, including the Artisans Dwellings Act (1875), the Public Health Act (1875), the Pure Food and Drugs Act (1875), the Climbing Boys Act (1875), and the Education Act (1876). He also succeeded in pass-ing measures to protect workers and improve the legal status of trade unions.

When the Liberals defeated the Conservatives in 1880, Disraeli was replaced as prime minister by William Gladstone. Disraeli retired to continue publishing novels, but after Endymion appeared in 1880, he took ill, dying on April 19, 1881.

Further reading: Bernard Glassman, Benjamin Disraeli:

The Fabricated Jew in Myth and Memory (Lanham, Md.:

Rowman & Littlefield, 2003); B. R. Jerman, The Young Disraeli (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1960); Paul Smith, Disraeli: A Brief Life (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1999); M. G. Wiebe, Mary S. Millar, and Ann P. Robson, Benjamin Disraeli Letters:

1852–1856 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998).

K 118 Disraeli, Benjamin

divination

The word divination means the attempt to predict, or divine, the future by consulting spirits or the souls of departed people, or by any other occult means. The practice is explicitly prohibited in the TORAH and RABBINIC LAW. Deuteronomy reads (18:10–12): “There shall not be found among you one that uses divination, a soothsayer, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or one that consults a ghost or a familiar spirit, or a necro-mancer. For whosoever does these things is an abomination unto God.” Several different pagan methods for divining are mentioned in the TANAKH, the Hebrew Bible. These include using a goblet, using arrows, inspection of a liver, and astrology.

MAIMONIDES lists the prohibition against div-ination as the 31st negative commandment in his work The 613 Commandments (seeMITZVAH). Rab-binic dogma prohibits divination, in the belief that the false actions of those who practice divination may lead the religious person away from God.

However, even Maimonides permits the use of the Hebrew Bible to predict the future, a practice that seems to fall into the category of divination.

Further reading: Cristiano Grottanelli, Kings &

Prophets: Monarchic Power, Inspired Leadership, & Sacred Text in Biblical Narrative (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999); Ronald H. Isaacs, Divination, Magic, and Healing: The Book of Jewish Folklore (Northvale, N.J.:

Jason Aronson, 1998); Michael D. Swartz, Scholastic Magic (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996); Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Supersti-tion: A Study in Folk Religion (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).

divorce

Judaism has recognized the concept of divorce for thousands of years. While considering divorce a disappointment, the ancient RABBISmaintained that it was better for a couple to divorce than to remain together in a state of constant bitterness and strife.

While divorce is an acceptable way to end a

MARRIAGE, Jewish law discourages it through

numerous and complex procedural details, as well as financial burdens in the form of alimony and child support. On the other hand, there are cases where divorce is ritually required, as when there has been a violation of marital fidelity.

Under traditional Jewish law, a man need not provide a reason to divorce his wife. However, Jewish society frowned upon divorces executed without merit. According to the TORAH, divorce is accomplished simply by writing a bill of divorce called a GET, handing it to the wife, and sending her away. The rabbis instituted rules regarding the process: writing the document, delivery, and obtaining the wife’s acceptance. An entire tractate of the TALMUDis dedicated to this subject.

Civil divorce is not sufficient to dissolve a Jew-ish marriage. The husband must also give his ex-wife a get. If a husband refuses to give a get to his wife, the BET DIN(rabbinic court) is empowered to fine him and/or excommunicate him. Excommu-nication was a far more powerful tool in earlier historical periods, when a man depended almost exclusively on the Jewish community for his livelihood and his ability to pray to God, than it is now. In ancient times a man who refused the bet din’s order to grant a divorce would be flogged until he relented. In Israel today, men are some-times imprisoned if they do not provide their ex-wife with a get.

Yet there are still many women who live in our modern world as AGUNAHs, or “chained women.” A woman finds herself in that status if she has obtained a civil divorce or her husband has left her, but her husband is either unwilling or unable to give her a get to complete the religious divorce.

She is recognized as divorced by the civil authori-ties, but she is not able to marry again in a reli-gious ceremony.

In the case of a husband missing in action dur-ing a war, a woman is considered an agunah until his body is found. Many women and Jewish courts have tried to find ways of helping to free agunahs, but there is still no overall solution. However, sometimes men going to war may leave a get for use if they do not return.

divorce 119 J

In liberal Judaism, rabbis may sometimes annul a marriage if the husband refuses to give his wife a get. They often use what is known as the

“Lieberman Clause” in the KETUBAH(wedding con-tract), a prenuptial agreement that grants a get automatically if there is a civil divorce. Those who do not subscribe to the use of 20th-century con-servative rabbi Saul LIEBERMAN’s (1898–1983) solution rely on a Talmudic dictate that “all betrothals receive the approval of the rabbis, and therefore the rabbis have the power to rescind their approval.”

Further reading: Irving A. Breitowitz, The Plight of the Agunah in American Society (Westport, Conn.: Green-wood Press, 1993); Celebration & Renewal: Rites of Pas-sage in Judaism (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1993); Blu Greenberg, On Women and Judaism:

A View from Tradition (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1998).

Doctorow, E. L.

Edgar Laurence Doctorow was born in New York City on January 6, 1931, to Russian-Jewish par-ents who were liberal intellectuals and political idealists. He was named after the renowned Amer-ican writer Edgar Allan Poe.

Doctorow attended the Bronx High School of Science and Kenyon College. He did graduate work at Columbia University before joining the U.S. Army and serving in GERMANY. Doctorow holds the Glucksman Chair in American Letters at New York University. He has taught at the Yale University Drama School, Princeton University, Sarah Lawrence College, and the University of California, Irvine.

During his career he has held many positions, including editor-in-chief of a newspaper, but he is best known for his forte—historical novels, which blend historical fact with fictional characters. His first novel, Welcome to Hard Times (1960), was set in the 19th century. One of his best-known works, The Book of Daniel (1971) was based on the Rosen-bergs, who conveyed American nuclear secrets to

the Soviet Union during the cold war. The couple was tried, found guilty, and executed. Doctorow portrays an America gripped with cold war hyste-ria, and highlights latent, but sometimes blatant, anti-Jewish and anti-black attitudes that sometimes complicated American fears about communism.

The Book of Daniel was turned into a movie called Daniel nearly a decade after publication.

Doctorow’s other novels include Ragtime (1975), set in pre–World War I America and later transformed into a hit Broadway musical and movie; Loon Lake (1980), set during the Great Depression; World’s Fair (1985), a semiautobio-graphical work set in the Bronx, New York, of the 1930s; Billy Bathgate (1989), about the gangsters of the Prohibition era; The Waterworks (1994), set in 1870s New York; and City of God (2000), which explored ideas about faith at the end of the 20th century. Doctorow has also published nonfiction essays, collected in Reporting the Universe (2003).

Doctorow has received many awards for his work, including the National Book Award, two National Book Critics Circle Awards, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Edith Wharton Citation for Fiction, the William Dean Howell Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the presidentially conferred National Humanities Medal. Doctorow and his wife have three children.

Further reading: E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime (New York:

Plume Books, 1997); Desmond F. McCarthy, Recon-structing the Family in Contemporary American Fiction (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1997); John Williams, Fiction as False Document: The Reception of E.

L. Doctorow in the Postmodern Age (Rochester, N.Y.:

Camden House, 1996).

Dov Baer of Lubavitch