“All of us are like Jonah, ready to flee to some exotic Tarshish rather than face the reality of who we are and, even more threatening, the possibility that we could become different.”
Rabbi Michael Strassfeld wrote these words in his reflection on the story of Jonah and why it was chosen as the central narrative of T’eshuva - the art of atonement, prime-time on Yom Kippur:
“Jewish tradition sets aside the day of Yom Kippur specifically and this whole period more generally to force us to focus on a subject we prefer to avoid...change.
Ironically, Jonah is the only successful prophet in the whole Bible, the only one whom people listen to and who causes them to actually change their ways. Yet it is his knowledge that he will succeed, not doubts about a possible failure, that causes Jonah to flee. Jonah is not afraid that the people of Nineveh will dismiss him as a quack; rather, he knows that they will repent.
Rather than face that possibility, he flees. To the end, Jonah resists any sense of responsibility for the fate of the world or his own fate. Jonah lacks compassion for the people of the city, a compassion found in everyone else in the story, including the sailors, who are extremely reluctant to throw Jonah overboard. Lacking compassion for others, he lacks compassion for himself. Fearing teshuvah [repentance] and change in others, he fears change in himself and flees the truth, only to find it at least for a moment in the dark depths of the whale.
Yom Kippur affirms the chance for positive change; for no matter how old or routine, there is hope for new birth and new ways. Each year these days ask us, “Which shall it be, Tarshish or Nineveh? Darkness or light? Death or life?”
But how was it that Jonah succeeded to change the minds of Nineveh’s people? The story tells us that after the fish vomited him on the shore, he made his way to the big city and only had to say five words to get the process of repentance going:
וַיָּ֤חֶל יוֹנָה֙ לָב֣וֹא בָעִ֔יר מַהֲלַ֖ךְ י֣וֹם אֶחָ֑ד וַיִּקְרָא֙ וַיֹּאמַ֔ר ע֚וֹד אַרְבָּעִ֣ים י֔וֹם וְנִֽינְוֵ֖ה נֶהְפָּֽכֶת׃
Jonah started out and made his way into the city the distance of one day’s walk, and proclaimed: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
Jonah 3:4
Jonah Potasznik explores this brief recipe for success:
“Say what you want about the prophecy’s brevity, but one has to admit it was remarkably to-the-point, and certainly, simpler is better when it comes to conveying a political message to the masses.
Beyond that, however, one has to wonder about the overall context within which Jonah delivered his speech. Perhaps it is not that he did the least that was required, but rather all that was needed. I hear Jonah’s one-liner and picture him standing in the midst of a busy thoroughfare, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of city life, including the crime and corruption that caught the attention of God in the first place. Jonah says just enough to turn the heads of Nineveh’s citizens: not to himself, but all that is going on around them. Jonah uses his voice not to convince others through a long and drawn-out discourse. Instead, he shows them the impending result of their present course of action, so they come to convince themselves.
Jonah’s one-line prophecy is a testament to the fact that, often, a spoken message gets its power not just from its words, but from its context.
Ancient Israel did not have a “one-prophet-fits-all” approach to the dissemination of God’s word. Elijah’s prophecies stung with sarcasm. Literary Jeremiah knew the power of the pen to sway hearts. Ezekiel had a flair for the dramatic. Perhaps Jonah is the prophet that lets the moment do the talking for him. What he loses in air time he makes up for in impact: merely point your finger at the problem to your listeners, and let them come to the necessary conclusion themselves.”
Whatever it was that Jonah said - it did indeed work. From the king down to the simplest of people, a general fast and remorse day is called, and everybody seems to be participating.
Somehow, this most cruel of empires figures out how to repent before it’s too late - and - it works:
וַיַּ֤רְא הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ אֶֽת־מַ֣עֲשֵׂיהֶ֔ם כִּי־שָׁ֖בוּ מִדַּרְכָּ֣ם הָרָעָ֑ה וַיִּנָּ֣חֶם הָאֱלֹהִ֗ים עַל־הָרָעָ֛ה אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּ֥ר לַעֲשׂוֹת־לָהֶ֖ם וְלֹ֥א עָשָֽׂה׃
God saw what they did, how they were turning back from their evil ways. And God renounced the punishment that had been planned for them, and did not carry it out.
Jonah 3:10
But this is not the end of Jonah’s story. The aftermath of his success, just as Rabbi Strassfeld wrote, is where he’s feeling most afraid and vulnerable. And where we are most confused —
What is the price of prophetic success?
What happens when the people listen? What is the meaning of the prophet’s life - or any of our lives when we finally take on a sacred purpose -- and when the task is done?
What is the price of prophetic success? What happens when the people listen - and even if they are the wicked kingdom - will atonement now absolve them of consequences?? Whatever happened to justice?
Jonah’s questions echo as this chapter ends and the real question of this book spills into the last chapter, and onto the pages of the story that is still told, and still puzzling.
How far can forgiveness extend?
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