From the Parshablog Archives: Yonah's Rebellion and Yonah as Metaphor
On my old blog, I posted many times about Yom Kippur themes. Here is a roundup from 2010. I will repeat here one of the better ones from about 20 years back, as to how Yonah can be read as metaphor. I’m trimming, correcting spelling, and one or two ideas that I got wrong. It’s still a bit wordy. Yes, my thoughts have hopefully shifted and matured since then, but still it strikes me as an interesting idea.
Yonah's Rebellion
Another blogger related that when her sons came home from school, having learned the story of Yonah in school in preparation for Yom Kippur. When she asked why Yonah ran away instead of delivering his prophecy, they repeated what they were taught -- that Yonah did not want to deliver the prophecy because when the gentiles repented, it would look bad for the Jews. She was upset -- "What are we teaching our children?" she cried out. She seemed to be upset for two reasons: firstly, if Hashem tells you to do something, you do it, and your own calculations of the best course of action do not matter; and secondly, what kind of message does this teach in terms of dealing with, and having regard for other people, namely gentiles? She was offended by this midrash or interpretation and wanted to see if was indeed brought down in a midrash or perush.
Indeed, this midrash or interpretation does exist - it could be found in Rashi, in Mahari Qara`, in Radak, etc., who state that Yonah knew that upon receiving his prophecy of destruction, they would repent, and Hashem would spare them. Hashem would then be angry at the Jews who did not repent even though He sent them prophets calling upon them to repent.
This midrash is derived from a specific interpretation of the end of the third perek and the beginning of the third, in which Yonah states why he did not go (Yonah 3:10):
י וַיַּרְא הָאֱלֹקִים אֶת-מַעֲשֵׂיהֶם, כִּי-שָׁבוּ מִדַּרְכָּם הָרָעָה; וַיִּנָּחֶם הָאֱלֹהִים, עַל-הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר-דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת-לָהֶם--וְלֹא עָשָׂה.10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, which He said He would do unto them; and He did it not.
and Yonah 4:1-2:
א וַיֵּרַע אֶל-יוֹנָה, רָעָה גְדוֹלָה; וַיִּחַר, לוֹ.1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.ב וַיִּתְפַּלֵּל אֶל-ה וַיֹּאמַר, אָנָּה ה הֲלוֹא-זֶה דְבָרִי עַד-הֱיוֹתִי עַל-אַדְמָתִי--עַל-כֵּן קִדַּמְתִּי, לִבְרֹחַ תַּרְשִׁישָׁה: כִּי יָדַעְתִּי, כִּי אַתָּה אֵל-חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם, אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב-חֶסֶד, וְנִחָם עַל-הָרָעָה.2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said: 'I pray Thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in mine own country? Therefore I fled beforehand unto Tarshish; for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and compassionate, long-suffering, and abundant in mercy, and repentest Thee of the evil.ג וְעַתָּה ה, קַח-נָא אֶת-נַפְשִׁי מִמֶּנִּי: כִּי טוֹב מוֹתִי, מֵחַיָּי3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.'
These pesukim seem to suggest that Yonah fled rather than deliver the prophecy because he was afraid they would repent and not perish.
Now, in terms of the objections, firstly, we see Hashem was ready to punish Yonah, and he repented. We see in the fourth perek that Hashem attempts to show Yonah he was wrong, and how all creatures, from the humans down to the innocent animals are deserving of Mercy and should not be wantonly destroyed. Just giving Yonah's motivations -- indeed, ones that seem to jump right out of the text -- is not to assert that Yonah was right in doing what he did.
That should suffice to answer her objections.
[SKIPPING A LENGTHY DIGRESSION about whether we should suppress authentic Jewish ideas because of political correctness, or whether that is a violation of academic freedom / intellection integrity]
Yonah As Metaphor
In fact, I believe this midrashic explanation is sublime, but in order to explain why, we need to take a step back.
Yonah reads as a kind of morality play1, and as a metaphor.
The theme of the book of Yonah is teshuva, repentance, a good reason it is read on Yom Kippur. Yonah rebels against God, then does teshuva. The sailors, who worship other gods, when experiencing God's salvation, repent and follow God. The city of Ninveh, which has sinned, is warned by Yonah of its imminent destruction, and they repent and are spared.
Further, we hardly find any reference to Yonah ben Amitai the prophet in Tanach. There is one instance in II Melachim 14:25:
ה֗וּא הֵשִׁיב֙ אֶת־גְּב֣וּל יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל מִלְּב֥וֹא חֲמָ֖ת עַד־יָ֣ם הָעֲרָבָ֑ה כִּדְבַ֤ר יְהוָה֙ אֱלֹהֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֲשֶׁ֣ר דִּבֶּ֗ר בְּיַד־עַבְדּ֞וֹ יוֹנָ֤ה בֶן־אֲמִתַּי֙ הַנָּבִ֔יא אֲשֶׁ֖ר מִגַּ֥ת הַחֵֽפֶר׃
It was he who restored the territory of Israel from Lebo-hamath to the sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the promise that the ETERNAL, the God of Israel, had made through God’s servant, the prophet Jonah son of Amittai from Gath-hepher.
As Rashi explains (following a credible closed-canon approach, in II Melachim 9, the prophet Elisha sent an unnamed prophet disciple to anoint Yehu, and in II Melachim 10, God (presumably through this prophet disciple) said
וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְהוָ֜ה אֶל־יֵה֗וּא יַ֤עַן אֲשֶׁר־הֱטִיבֹ֙תָ֙ לַעֲשׂ֤וֹת הַיָּשָׁר֙ בְּעֵינַ֔י כְּכֹל֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בִּלְבָבִ֔י עָשִׂ֖יתָ לְבֵ֣ית אַחְאָ֑ב בְּנֵ֣י רְבִעִ֔ים יֵשְׁב֥וּ לְךָ֖ עַל־כִּסֵּ֥א יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
GOD said to Jehu, “Because you have acted well and done what was pleasing to Me, having carried out all that I desired upon the House of Ahab, four generations of your descendants shall occupy the throne of Israel.”
So now we have a name for the unnamed prophet disciple, Yonah. This would place Yona as a disciple of Elisha, and thus of Elisha's time.
To get really annoying, Yonah is the son of Amitai because rather than being an actual person, he represents a "greater truth," that of the message of the book. Although he’s an actual person, I would channel the idea of those who claim that Sefer Iyov was ahistorical. Despite Iyov being an actual person (based on ish haya be’eretz Utz, Iyov shemo), the idea is that the events could have happened to the actual Iyov (for he had such character) and he would have prevailed. But the point of the book is to present different approaches to theodicy, why bad things happen to good people and vice versa.
Also, even taking Yonah as an actual person and prophet, the role of the book stays the same. Why is this particular prophecy, and this particular sequence of events (and no others), recorded for posterity?
As with any book in the canon, the intended audience of the book is the Jewish people. This is a call upon them to do teshuva, giving three examples of people who did teshuva - Yonah the individual, the sailors as a somewhat larger group, and finally an entire city. The Israelites should see these positive examples and be inspired to do teshuva.
In fact, there are examples of public movements to repentance - one salient example being the reform in the day of Yoshiyahu. However, the impression one gets from most of Neviim - those prophetic works deemed important to pass on to future generations, contains calls for repentance and the Israelites not responding. The contrast is one of Goofus and Gallant. (If you are unfamiliar with the reference, please follow this link before proceeding.)
Now, on to Yonah's rebellion. Why did he rebel? One can argue from within the confines of the narrative. In this regard, the verses at the end of perek 3 and at the start of perek 4, mentioned above, will be particularly influential. Yonah seems to state that he did not go to deliver the prophecy because he knew the people of Ninveh would repent and God, being All-Merciful, would spare them. This still does not answer the particulars of why he rebelled. One could interpret these verses in various ways. A few random possibilities:
Yonah hated gentiles and wanted them to be killed.
Yonah hated sinners and wanted them to be killed.
Yonah's feeling of fairness and justice was that sinners should get what is coming to them, and if he did what God wanted, these people would be spared.
Yonah was afraid that when the promised destruction did not come, the people would consider him a false prophet, which would either cause a loss of prestige or else a lynching.
Those answers are ones which exist within the confines of the narrative. However, let us break free of this constraints and operate on a meta-textual level.
Once again, why did Yonah refuse to deliver the prophecy?
The answer is that the book is about teshuva, and Yonah as an individual must sin if he is to repent. There is only one sin that is particular to a true prophet of God, that of suppressing prophecy. And so, Yonah must sin to teach us about repentance at the individual level.
That Yonah gives an explicit reason in a later chapter is unimportant - foremost because that is internal to the narrative, but also because the purpose of the fourth chapter is to teach another lesson - the value of life and thus God's acceptance of the repentance. Yonah role here in chapter 4 is different - to provide a foil for the message of the legitimacy of Hashem's mercy. Yonah is wrong that repentance should not save, and he advances this position in order to be shown wrong. His initial rebellion is reread in this light. Do not cite the end of the book to shed light on the beginning, for different slices of the overall message of teshuva are presented at different points.
The midrash, as I stated above, is sublime. It operates on the meta-textual level and, at the same time, within the confines of the book. Chazal realize that the purpose of the book is to advance the message of teshuva, and that the exemplars in this book, the people of Ninveh in particular, but in fact every penitent in this book, serves as a Gallant to the Goofus of the Israelites. And everybody detests Gallant. :)
Thus, if Yonah must rebel, give him a good reason to rebel. Yonah has a meta-textual realization, that he is starring in a morality play, one that will cast the behavior of the Israelites in a bad light. Why not have him rebel against this role he is cast, for he dislikes this role of implicitly criticizing the Israelites by causing the people of Ninveh to do teshuva. Even better, we can read this meta-textual reason into the confines of the narrative and text, and into the reason Yonah explicitly gives. For Yonah states that he was reluctant to go because he knew that the people of Ninveh would repent and God would spare them.
What now of the offense taken to this sublime midrash? One problem was how this is presented as a valid reason to rebel against God. From within the narrative/textual constraint, I previously argues that an explanation of motivations does not equal justification. Now, on the meta-textual level, we can say better -- the rebellion against God is an act within the constraints of the text and narrative, but the midrash is one that recognizes, on a meta-textual level, the role of the book as a call to teshuva and implicit criticism of Israel. The midrash is commenting on the nature of the book. The other objection, about the poor gentile residents of Ninveh, is also beside the point, for the people of Ninveh are beside the point, for they reside within the constraints of the book, and the lesson the midrash teaches is meta-textual, about the nature of the book.
I'm not using this term exactly right, but it's the best term approximation I can come up with at the moment.