Who did the shvatim marry?

Ema of 5

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 7:28 pm

I remember learning that each boy was born with a twin sister, and they each married girls from different mothers, except Yosef, who married asnat bas potifera, who was actually the daughter of Dina and schem.

Ema of 5

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 9:54 pm

My son came home with a question from his rebbi on his pats ha sheet- which shvatim married biological sisters who were not their own sisters.

cnc

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 10:28 pm

So interesting. They were allowed to marry half sisters?
Also if Osnat was the child of Shechem and Dina why is she referred to as bas Potifar?

trixx

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 10:44 pm

Kayin and Hevel married the twin girls they were born with (this was a special chessed Hashem did for them)

half sisters aren't full sisters... also Torah wasn't yet given. And there was no one else of their caliber /from their family to marry - at this point, not even distant cousins as Yitzchak/Rivka and Yaakov/Rochel-Leah were

acc to midrash, Dina was carried down to Shchem by malach? I think, and adopted by Potifar. Potifar gave her to Yosef as a reward, fulfilling the Egyptian prophecy that a foreigner would marry Potifar's daughter, or something like that. Dina and Yosef both knew her true identity - she had a locket/parchment around her neck with "Dina granddaughter of yaakov" written on it.

This is all acc to midrash, and offhand but easily found in the big Midrash Says

Ema of 5

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 11:01 pm

cnc wrote:

So interesting. They were allowed to marry half sisters?
Also if Osnat was the child of Shechem and Dina why is she referred to as bas Potifar?

She was adopted because Dina couldn't keep her, and the entire city of schem was killed.

etky

Mon, Nov 23 2015, 12:31 am

trixx wrote:

Remember too that according to the pshat, Avraham and Sara were half-siblings. They shared a father.

etky

Mon, Nov 23 2015, 12:56 am

eema of 3 wrote:

I wonder how this midrash treats the account in perek 38 (the prelude to the Tamar story) of Yehuda's marrying Bat -Shuah the Canaanite? Maybe he had more than one wife?

imasoftov

Mon, Nov 23 2015, 7:52 am

eema of 3 wrote:

Rashi on Bereshit 37:35, based on Bereshit Rabba 84:21

רבי יהודה אומר אחיות תאומות נולדו עם כל שבט ושבט ונשאום. רבי נחמיה אומר כנעניות היו

Rabbi Yehuda says, twin sisters were born with each boy and they married them
Rabbi Nechemia says they were Canaanites.