Once a year Jews around the world take part in a holy day of introspection, repentance
and forgiveness – it’s called Yom Kippur. Now imagine you were given the job of picking
a Biblical story to read on Yom Kippur – what would do you think you would go for? Something to do with repentance
I guess, right? Yet the Rabbis decided Jews should the read the Book of Jonah. And the
obvious question is, well, why? This is a story about a Hebrew prophet told by G-d to
warn the idolatrous and immoral people of Ninveh to repent or they will all perish.
(Never a dull moment in the Bible). And instead of listening to God, Jonah runs away from
God – whatever that means. He runs on to a ship, theres a big storm, yet despite this
Jonah falls asleep comfortably at the bottom of the ship. He then tells the people on the ship
the storm is happening because God is punishing him. He then jumps off the ship into the water,
gets swallowed by a fish. Jonah prays to God, eventually gets spat out on to dry land. He
then begrudgingly tells the people of Ninveh to repent and they repent. And then there's this
bizarre conversation Jonah has with God which we don’t have to get into right now.
But the question is – why are we reading this book on Yom Kippur? We would expect to be reading a
book about repentance right? But the problem is - Jonah never actually repents - he runs
away from God - and yes when he's stuck in the fish he prays to God, but he never actually
regrets his behaviour - even until the end. Well you could say its about the people of
Ninveh repenting - but it's not called the Book of Ninveh - it's called the Book of Jonah.
The focus of the story is on a man who not only doesn't repent, but who runs away from God.
And isn't repentant about it! I just don't get this! What is this? Honestly this is killing me!
Can someone get me a glass of water?
Oh great, thanks!...Cheers!
An answer to this question was provided brilliantly by Rabbi David Fohrman.
He suggests that there is a clue to understanding Jonah’s actions in his prayer to God where
he lists God’s 13 attributes of Mercy, but replaces one of them at the end. Instead of calling God
a "God of truth" - emet - he says that God “refrains from punishing”. Jonah appears to feel that
God was somehow not behaving in a truthful manner. Moreover truth was likely of immense
importance to Jonah given that he is known as Jonah Ben Amitai - Son of Amita - whose
root words spell emet - truth - Jonah is the son of truth - his very essence is of truth.
So clearly there was something in God’s request to tell the people of Ninveh to repent
that went against Jonah’s instinct towards truthfulness. But what was it? Imagine the following
scenario - scenario a and b. In scenario a) You die and go to heaven - (after 120 years
Please God!) and you are met by a heavenly steward who says - "hi there, well done you’ve
made it - look God simply doesn’t have time to meet with you, why not just take a seat
there in the lounge and enjoy your stay. It’s perfectly comfortable, but you can’t help
but feel ignored - you cant help but wonder - did my actions in the world actually have
any meaning? Did my life have any purpose? Then there’s scenario b - you die and go
to heaven. There you are greeted by God, your Heavenly Father, who sits you down and watches
through your life with you - the good moments - the times you made the extra effort to give,
to be decent, to connect - but also the times you let yourself down - and how that impacted
yourself and the people around you. It would be difficult, it would be painful, but it
would also be meaningful and beautiful. You would reconcile your life’s actions, you
would see the meaning of your choices, and you would forever feel the joy of the self that
you created. Which one of these scenarios would you prefer? I know which one would make
life easier - scenario A. But I think most of us would choose scenario B, because while
it makes life challenging, it also makes it meaningful. In scenario A, by letting everyone
in heaven experience the same thing, God displays zero interest in justice, love and ultimately
truth. Because meaning is what humans really want - not comfort. Scenario A can be felt
further in another illustration. Imagine you were in the woods with one of your close friends
when suddenly out of nowhere a man launches a physical attack on your friend - causing
him to be paralysed for the rest of his life. You take this fellow to court - and the problem
is there were no witnesses there to prove your side of the story. After a few weeks
of the trial you get a knock on your door - it's the judge - he sits you down and says
listen - no one can prove what happened - I want you to get a drink with the alleged attacker,
shake hands and move on. How would you feel? Angry? Hopeless? You want justice for your
friend. Now imagine if the Judge knocking on your door was someone else - imagine if
it was the Judge of Judges. Imagine if you were sleeping and God came to you in a dream
and said - I want you to forget about what happened - I’m dismissing the entire case.
This would be an even scarier scenario. Because it’s one thing for justice to go amiss in
this world - but when your told that ultimate justice by God will never be meted out - you
have nothing to hope for. Nothing to console you that the wrongdoing of the attacker will
be avenged. It would be the ultimate nightmare. And this...was Jonah’s nightmare. The people
of Ninveh were monsters. They were a society governed by theft, cheaters and immorality
- their society was as degraded as you can get. Moreover they were part of the Assyrian
Empire - an Empire hostile to the Jewish people to say the least. And here comes along God
saying - go tell them if they just say they’re sorry I’ll forgive them and we can move
on - we can forget about all their misdeeds. And even if their repentance was sincere, that
Ninveh can be forgiven so easily, in Jonah’s eyes, suggested that the Ultimate Judge was
no longer acting justly. But it meant more than that - because if God was prepared to overlook
the actions of the wicked - then that meant all our actions are meaningless. If evil has
no consequence then neither does good. In Jonah’s eyes, God’s words meant this is
really a meaningless world. What would you do if you found out that, really, actions don't have consequences in the grand scheme of things? You’d probably
want to run away - even if it’s not possible to run from God - but you wouldn’t care
- because the God of truth no longer seems to care about truth. That's why he could sleep on a boat
indifferent to the stormy winds, that’s how he was prepared to jump off the ship - his
entire world became inconsequential - he had nothing to live for. And even in the fish
when Jonah eventually communicates with God he doesn’t seem to repent. And when he finally
agrees to tell the people of Ninveh to repent, and they do, he seems just as depressed. Yet
we do read this story on Yom Kippur - the day of repentance - why? Our answer can perhaps
be found in the last chapter of the story. Jonah is sitting on the outer skirts of the
city of Ninveh, he’s upset that God has forgiven Ninveh so easily. And God causes
a plant to grow instantaneously that provides shade for Jonah. And Jonah somehow takes comfort
in God’s showing of love to him. But what’s strange is that in the verse earlier we are
told that Jonah already built for himself a hut to provide shade - so this plant was
unnecessary! And then, God causes a worm to come along and eat away at the plant until
it withers away. Jonah becomes upset again - and God says to Jonah - “so, you take
pity on this little plant, and yet you think I shouldn’t take pity on the entire people
of Ninveh?”. And the book ends. Ok...what exactly is going on here? What was God telling Jonah? If you try
to imagine the worm and the plant having a conversation it would probably sound a bit like
this: the worm would appeal to justice and say - “you, plant, have no right to be here
on this earth - you just popped into existence by God - that’s not how plants grow - they
require the planting of seeds, and steady growth. You’re not operating within the
rules of this world. You have no right to live!” The worm represents justice. But
the plant would appeal to compassion. The plant says “yes, you know what, you’re
right - I don’t have a right to be here - but I’m here now, I’m alive and breathing
- it would be such a shame to get rid of me - think about all I can give in the future
to the world.” Jonah was being taught that sometimes compassion and mercy must rise above
strict justice alone. He was upset that a plant that didn’t even need to be there was destroyed
- teaching him that sometimes a world of justice alone isn’t the ideal. God was teaching
Jonah that sometimes compassion must trump strict justice, that sometimes you have to
give someone another chance. Jonah was right – sometimes saying sorry isn’t enough
– but compassion asks not “what you are now?”, not “what have you done in the
past?” – but “what can you become in the future?” The Hebrew word for compassion
- rachamim - shares the same root as the Hebrew word for a womb - rechem. The womb fosters
life even though it has done no good deed on this earth - because the womb supports
potential. And this is perhaps one reason why we read the Book of Jonah on Yom Kippur.
It’s not a story of a person who repented, it’s a story about what repentance really
means - how saying sorry can be meaningful. On Yom Kippur we turn to God, we turn to our
fellow human beings – and we ask for forgiveness for our mistakes – We appeal to God saying
"Yes I don’t deserve to have a clean slate, true I don’t deserve forgiveness – but
don’t just look at what I’ve done – look at who I can become”. Yom Kippur is as much
about resolution for the future as it is about reconciling the past. In our prayers we repeatedly
appeal to the God of life - with the knowledge that whatever the demands of justice may be,
we ask that God’s compassion continue to nurture us and help us become the best we
can be.