And he said to them, "Pick me up and cast me into the sea,

so that the sea may subside from upon you, for I know that,

because of me, this mighty tempest is upon you." (Jonah 1:12)

R. Natan said: Jonah simply wanted to lose himself in the sea, for it

is said, Pick me up and cast me into the sea. You will find similar [deeds] among the patriarchs and the

prophets – they would give themselves up for the sake of Israel. What does

Moses say? And now if You forgive their sin [very well], but if not please

erase me from Your book which You have written (Shemot 32:32). If

eyes, so that I not see my misfortune (Bamidbar 11:15). What does David say? Behold

done? I beg that Your hand be against me, and against my father's house

(II Samuel 24:17) – so it is that in

every place you find the patriarchs and the prophets offering their lives

for Israel.

(Mekhilta DeRabbi

Yishmael Bo – Massekhet DePas'ha 1)

R. Shimon says: The men did not accept Jonah's request that they throw

him into the sea and instead drew lots, as it is said: And they cast lots

and the lot fell upon Jonah (Jonah 1).

What did they do? They took the vessels that were on the ship and threw them

into the sea in order to be unburdened of them, but it did not help at all. They

tried to return to the land but were unable, for it is said: and the men

rowed vigorously (Jonah 1). What

did they do? They took Jonah and stood him by the side of the ship and said:

"God of the world, O Lord! Do not place innocent blood upon us, for we do

not know the nature of this man, and he himself says, 'This trouble has come

upon you because of me.'" They took him and lowered him [until the sea

reached] to his ankles, and the sea was calmed. They brought him back to them

and the sea raged against them. They lowered him down [until the sea reached] his

navel and the sea was calmed, they brought him back to them and it raged

against them. They dropped him entirely and the sea was instantly calm, for it

is said: And they picked Jonah up and cast him into

the sea, [and the sea ceased storming].

(Tanhuma [Warsaw

edition] Vayikra 8)

As I bring to my

mind/the word of the Prophet Jonah

Yehoshua Grant

In memory of Rabbi Ze'ev

Gotthold,

may he rest in peace

(5577-5669)

The Book of Jonah plays a modest role in the

Yom Kippur service as the haftorah for Minchah. It does, nevertheless, have a

profound and impressive presence within the multifaceted and complex structure

of the day's liturgy. This slight biblical book contains a great wealth of meaning

and wisdom. Attentive readers have explored it over and over again throughout

the generations, finding ways to relate it to their own experience. Each

generation had its say, from R. Avraham ibn Ezra, who mentions it in a poem of

rebuke and troubles: "Terrors fell upon me/ and my thoughts took to fear/as

I brought to mind/ the word of the Prophet Jonah"¹ to Haim

Guri, who wrote in his last book of poems, Eyval: "I saw a fishing

boat pulled south/to the old port, which remembers Jonah"; "And I

have no indication I will be able to live even temporarily in the belly of the

whale/for I am no prophet nor son of a prophet…"² The great

Hebrew poets of Spain produced series of piyyutim [liturgical poems] for

Yom Kippur that revolve around the story and verses of the Book of Jonah,

enlivening and enriching the Bible's own concise account and explaining its

eternal symbolic significance. "I am a sign and wonder for all Your

creatures/ imprisoned I will not leave/ in terror I shall call upon You"³

– thus speaks Jonah in one of R. Avraham ibn Ezra's piyyutim, perhaps echoing Piyyutei

Yonah written by his predecessor, R. Yitzhak ben Giyat: "He made His

ways known […] and made of them a wonder"; "You set up a

foundation, for the wicked to see/ and each man shall return from his wicked

path (Jonah 3:8)."⁴

By reading the Book of Jonah against the

background of two stories from Bereishit, one of its most central and

instructive dimensions will come to light. These stories are the Flood

narrative and the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. Speaking of Nineveh's

populace, God says to Jonah: for their evil has come

before Me (1:2).

Uriel Simon explains that the expression ra'atam – "their

evil" is reminiscent of a verse concerning the generation of the Flood: And

the Lord saw that the evil of man was great in the earth (Bereishit 6:5), and

the expression has come before me is reminiscent of a verse concerning

Sodom: I will descend now and see, whether according to her cry, which has

come to Me, they have done (Bereishit 18:21). However, explains Simon, in

contrast to these two destructions which were not preceded by a public warning,

Jonah is sent to tell those being judged of their expected punishment.⁵

Noah and his family escape the Flood in an

ark built according to the divine decree. The other members of his generation

were neither served previous warning nor allowed to appeal their harsh sentence

before its execution. God did tell Abraham – "the most loyal of His

household" – ahead of time about what was in store for Sodom. Abraham

tried to hold off the calamity with his famous cry of Will you kill the

righteous with the wicked, asking that the town be saved, if only for the

sake of the few righteous people living in it. However, without even ten

righteous men in the town, there is nothing left for Abraham to do but return

to his place (18: 23-33). There remains

no way to avoid the city's complete destruction. These stories are based upon

an absolute, clear, and fixed opposition between the righteous and the wicked,

between the innocent and the guilty. Thus, as soon as it becomes clear that the

place lacks the required minimum of righteous people – it must be destroyed and

God sends his angels to do away with it (Bereishit

19:13 – the Lord has sent us to destroy it).

Linguistic similarities point to a connection

between the Book of Jonah – In another forty days

Nineveh shall be overturned [nehepakhet] (3:4) and its "precedent" in the

story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Bereishit: And He turned

over [vayahafokh] these cities and the entire plain,

and all the inhabitants of the cities, and the vegetation of the ground

(Bereishit 19:25) and in other Scriptural

mentions, such as: It is like the overturning

fury and in His rage (Devarim 29:22).

It is hardly surprising that R. Moshe ibn Ezra restates Jonah's words in terms

of that exact verse: "And he spoke a word, that Nineveh would be overturned

for its sin/ like the overturning of

Sodom, Gemorrah."⁶ The similarity of language,

however, only serves to emphasize how different the two passages are in terms

of content. God does not send angels to destroy sinful Nineveh, but rather He

sends a prophet to proclaim against it (Arise, go to Nineveh, the

great city, and proclaim against it – 1:2). Those being judged are addressed directly before the

sentence ruled against them is executed. When, following his failed attempt to

flee, Jonah finally carries out his mission the sinful city responds

enthusiastically, undergoing an amazing transformation whose climax involves a

rigorous and authentic repudiation of past sins: and

their hands (3:8). No less

amazingly, when faced with this new situation God cancels His planned

destruction of the city: And God saw their deeds,

evil that He had spoken to do to them, and He did not do it (3:10).

The "alchemical" power of

repentance appears here in a very clear fashion. It can transform the wicked

into righteous and consequently overturn a sentence of punishment decreed by

God. This power finds no expression in the stories of the Flood and of Sodom,

which are written in terms of an essential and static dichotomy between the

righteous, who are bound for salvation and the wicked, who are doomed to punishment.

The message of Jonah, in contrast, reminds us of how R. Meir's wife Bruriah

told him to pray for sins to be rescinded through the power of repentance

rather than to pray for the sinners' death: "Sins

will be destroyed from the earth [and the wicked will be no more] (Psalms 104:35). Is sinners

written here? Sins is written! When Sins

will be destroyed – the wicked will be no more [i.e., the wicked

will no longer be wicked]. Ask for mercy towards them that they will

repent" (Berakhot

10a). How different this dictum is from the story of the Flood

and the total destruction it brought upon the entire world and its inhabitants:

And it [the Flood] blotted out all beings that were

fowl of the heavens, and they were blotted out from the earth (Bereishit 7:23). The final verse of Jonah (4:11) seems to rise in protest against such

total destruction: Now should I not take pity on

many beasts as well? Of course, Bereishit itself already

presents the flood as a terrible catastrophe that God promises will never be

repeated: and the water will no longer become a

flood to destroy all flesh (Bereishit 9:15), and the Zikhronot

section of Mussaf for Rosh Hashanah mentions the love, salvation, and

compassion with which God remembered and visited Noah during the flood, and how

through their power Noah's remembrance comes before Him "to multiply his

seed like the dust of the earth and his descendants like the sand of the

sea."⁷ It seems that the door opened towards repentance

for the inhabitants of Nineveh – as it is opened for each human individual and

society and as it is opened for us – is the deepest and most profound

expression of the "word of salvation and compassion" sent by God to

man.

At first Jonah is sent to Nineveh to announce

its destruction, to proclaim the coming of the oppressing

sword [literally: the sword of Yonah] (Jeremiah 46:16; 50:16). Now, at the end of the day – unintentionally,

under duress, perhaps even to his displeasure – he is announcing

peace, heralding good tidings (Isaiah

52:7) to that very city, like the yonah – the dove – which was sent

from the ark and returned to him at eventide, and

had abated from upon the earth (Bereishit

8:11). The grace of life and renewal as embodied in the olive branch is

also signified by the short-lived shade of the gourd which grew up over the

prophet Yonah ben Ammitai: it is the truth embodied in the story of his

seemingly falsified prophecy.

1. Y. Levin, Shirei Kodesh shel Avraham ibn Ezra,

Jerusalem 5640, pg. 81.

2. H. Guri, Eyval, Shirim Tel-Aviv 5669, pp. 55,

58.

3. Y. Levin, Shirei HaKodesh shel Avraham ibn Ezra,

Jerusalem 5740, pg. 80.

4. S. Bernstein, "Piyyutim Hadashim LeRabbi

Yitzhak ben Giyat," Tarbiz 11 (5700), pp. 323, 325.

5. U. Simon, Yonah, im Mavo UFeirush (Mikra

LeYisrael), Tel Aviv and Jerusalem 5752, pg. 43.

6. S. Bernstein, Moshe ibn Ezra: Shirei

Kodesh. Tel Aviv 5617, pg. 259.

7. Especially appropriate here are the two biblical

images which represent the stability of settled land as against the sea's

morass. Concerning this passage in general, see: Y. Heinemann, Iyyunei

Tefillah, Jerusalem 5741, pg. 59.

Dr. Yehoshua Grant teaches at the Hebrew

University in Jerusalem. Lately he has been researching the Book of Jonah in

medieval poetry.

The Limits of Power and the Danger of its Glorification

How can one [person] pursue a thousand,

out, and the Lord has given them over?

(Devarim 32:30)

Israel's lack of power and failure to resist its enemies could have

proved to them that their easy victory did not come to demonstrate their

superiority arising from their national genius, but that they rather vanquished

Israel because it had been cast aside and deserted by God. Until now the Lord was

its rock of salvation and the surety of its strength, and now Israel was, once

again, unworthy of its Rock's help.

…our enemies sit in judgment – oyveinu

plilim. Plilim – see my commentary (Bereishit

48:11) – pilel and the noun palil are never used anywhere

in the sense of the application of state power. These terms always refer to

decisions and legal rulings based upon judgment and the drawing of conclusions.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch Devarim

32:30-31)

Our yeshiva students of Zion have taken upon themselves to glorify and

exalt this disgraceful era and to establish in the world a positive attitude

towards war. During all the ten years since the war (World War I) these yeshiva

students of Zion have never ceased to sing songs about the new heavens and new

earth created by the war.

How great is the pain! How terrible the loss! If there were only one

truth in the world it was the Congregation of Israel, pining for Isaiah's

vision: Nation will not raise up sword against nation. Now our young

Balfourists have come and contaminated it as well…For the sword has never

left the hands of the nations for even a moment, and they are sunk in feuds and

attacks from generation to generation. The force of inertia pushed them to

wars. But the Jews who suddenly love the beauty of "the hero's thigh"

girded with a sword – they aggressively blaspheme the prophet Isaiah.

(R. Shmuel Tamrat – Knesset

Yisrael. Quoted in Eli Holtzer: Herev Pipiyot BeYadam pg. 151)

Repentance from Love and from Fear

Reish Lakish said: Great is repentance, for it makes deliberate sins

count as accidental ones, for it is said, Return, O Israel to the Lord your

God, for you have stumbled in sinning (Hosea

14:2). A sin is deliberate, but he calls it a stumbling block!

Could this be?

Did Reish Lakish not say: Great is repentance, for it makes deliberate

sins count as merits, for it is said, And when a wicked man turns back from

his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live by virtue of these

(Ezekiel 33:19). It is not a problem:

Here [-the latter – refers to repentance] out of love [of God], here [-the

former – refers to repentance] out of fear [of God].

(Yoma 86b)

Repentance raises a person up from all of the low-places of the world,

but even so, it is not a stranger to the world. Rather, it lifts up the world

and life with itself. It refines sinful tendencies. The powerful will, which

breaks through all limits and causes sin is itself transformed into a living

force that performs great and lofty works for the good and for a blessing.

(From Rabbi A.I. Kook ztz"l, Al Ha-Teshuvah)

The repentance which brings about a radical transformation of a whole

way of life leading to a rebirth of the personality is repentance of

redemption; another type of repentance, unlike this kind, is directed against a

specific sin – it is repentance of expiation.

(Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, On

Repentance, Pinchas H. Peli, editor, pg. 174)

On the eve of Yom Kippur, one should devote his attention towards

placating all those against whom he has sinned, since Yom Kippur atones for

sins between man and God, but Yom Kippur cannot atone for sins between man and

his fellow, until he assuages him. Even if he merely teased him with words, he

must appease him, going to him. If he is not appeased the first time, he must

return again and a third time. Every time he should take three people with him

to assuage him, in order that he forgive him, And if, after three attempts, he

will not be appeased, there is no reason to continue cajoling him. These words

are true of his fellow, but in the case of his rabbi, he must bring many

friends (to intercede) until he is assuages. If he dies, he shall bring ten

people and stand them by his grave and say, "I have sinned to the God of

Israel and to so-and-so whom I have offended. This is done so that the heart of

each person of Israel will be content with his fellow, so that there will be no

room for Satan to speak against them.

(Tur Orah Hayyim,

606)

Good and upright is the Lord: the Option of Correction is One

of God's Graces 

Good

and upright is the Lord . How is He

good? In that He is upright. How is He upright? In that He is good.

They

asked wisdom: What is the sinner's punishment? It said: Evil will pursue the sinners (Proverbs 13:21).

They

asked prophecy: What is the sinner's punishment? It said: The soul which

sins shall die.

They

asked the Torah: What is the sinner's punishment? It said: Let him bring a

guilt-offering and it will be atoned.

They

asked the Holy One, blessed be He: What is the sinner's punishment? He said:

Let him repent and it shall be atoned for him, as it is written: The Lord is good and upright; therefore, He leads sinners

on the way, [meaning] that He shows sinners the way for them to

repent.

(Yalkut Shimoni Tehilim 25, 702)

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