Musar for Shabbat 110:6
א"ר שמואל בר נחמני א"ר יונתן כל האומר ראובן חטא אינו אלא טועה שנאמר (בראשית לה, כב) ויהיו בני יעקב שנים עשר מלמד שכולן שקולים כאחת אלא מה אני מקיים (בראשית לה, כב) וישכב את בלהה פילגש אביו מלמד שבלבל מצעו של אביו ומעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו שכב עמה
teaching that they were all equal.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'balanced as one' — they were all equal in righteousness. ');"><sup>10</sup></span> Then how do I interpret, and he lay with Bilhah his father's concubine?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ibid. ');"><sup>11</sup></span>
Shenei Luchot HaBerit
Since the commission of even such a "shade of an impropriety" can harm the public image of someone perceived as a צדיק, Jacob had to be punished. Dinah was raped, i.e. became someone's sex partner without benefit of the holy state of matrimony. Her brothers described such relations as only being conducted with a harlot, i.e. that only harlots were sexually violated (34, 31). The episode in which Reuben is described as having slept with Bilhah (35, 22) is also perceived as an indirect result of the flaw in Jacob's piety discovered by the guardian angel of Esau.
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