The legacy of Jonah on Yom Kippur

There is one book in our Bible that encompasses the writings of 12 prophets known as the “Trei Asar.” This volume is the subject of an interesting commentary and analysis by one of the greatest popular Jewish historians, Rabbi Berel Wein. His book, “Who Knows Twelve?” (to be released by Maggid Books in October) includes a breezy take on each of these 12 holy men.

With Yom Kippur on the horizon, my focus will deal with Rabbi Wein’s take on the Prophet Jonah, whose book is read at the Mincha service.

In my discussions with Rabbi Wein, the author made the following observation of the good prophet that warrants your attention. Rabbi Wein teaches us the following:

“The Prophet Jonah is the biblical equivalent to the medieval ‘ Everyman’. What I mean by that is that he represents all of us in our strengths and weaknesses. Jonah is entrusted with a godly mission and he attempts to escape from it. He is a believing servant of G-d and yet he somehow finds fault with G-d’s instructions directing him to deliver his divine message to the people of the city of Ninveh. He despairs of the potential success of that mission and thus attempts to escape from executing it.”

“It is only when he finds himself in the belly of the whale, and, when he has no escape, that he follows his divinely inspired destiny and agrees to obey G-d’s direction and will. His interpretation of G-d’s words was that the city and its population are, due to their sins, doomed and that there is no hope for their redemption. G-d’s will is to the contrary, and he proves Jonah wrong. Given divine warning from Jonah the people repent and thus avoid destruction. Once more, Jonah is disappointed, so to speak, in G-d’s behavior. He thinks that his prophecy was proven to be false; he is in terror that this non-Jewish society has repented while the Jewish society that he has preached to earlier has ignored all of his warnings and never did repent. He feels that this will lead to the doom of Israel and Judah.”

As we continue the narrative, Rabbi Wein tells us further the following: