Jonah's Lesson of Teshuvah.
Americans for Peace Now is proud to offer you this Dvar Torah by Rabbi Amy Schwartzman of Temple Rodef Shalom in Northern Virginia. As the Jewish High Holidays near, Jews enter a period of self-examination and repentance. We hope that Rabbi Schwartzman's sermon offers you a point of reflection. Rabbi Schwartzman is involved in the leadership of many Jewish organizations and has served on the executive board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) and co-coordinated the Women's Rabbinic Network of Reform Judaism. She has also worked with many community organizations including the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, many national and local housing organizations, and has been active in community AIDS projects.
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The best text of Yom Kippur for me, hands down, is the book of Jonah, a multi-layered, compelling story that is
much more than a fish tale. What a shame that it has been assigned to the least popular service - Yom Kippur
afternoon.
For those who are comatose with hunger by Yom Kippur afternoon, here is a quick reminder: Jonah is commanded by God
to go to Nineveh and to proclaim judgment upon it because of Nineveh's wickedness. But Jonah boards a ship and
flees westward to Tarshish, in the opposite direction. God thwarts his escape by whipping up a violent storm which
threatens the boat. The sailors discover that the storm has arisen because their passenger, Jonah, is fleeing from
the service of God. At Jonah's suggestion, they throw him overboard in order to quiet the storm. What follows is
the famous episode of Jonah's survival in the belly of the big fish.
Inside the fish, Jonah learns the lesson that he cannot avoid God, and is abruptly deposited in the city of
Nineveh. He begins to fulfill his prophetic mission, announcing that the evil city is doomed. The Ninivites believe
God's word and, within three days the king and all the people go into mourning to repent for their sins.
The Ninevites' reform works. When God sees that they have abandoned their evil ways, God renounces their
punishment. This distresses Jonah greatly. He is enraged that God has shown mercy to people who are not only
sinners, but aren't even Jews! To help Jonah understand God's ways, God causes a huge leafy plant to grow over
Jonah's head providing shade from the oppressive sun. And then, the very next day God destroys the plant. Jonah
faints from the heat, and cries out to God in anger. God points out that if Jonah cared so much for the plant, that
he neither created nor tended, why should God not be concerned for the people of Nineveh? The story ends with
Jonah's silence.
It is obvious why this text has been assigned to Yom Kippur. The swift, complete, and universal repentance of the
Ninevites followed by God's ready forgiveness is exactly the paradigm that we strive for on this day. But a careful
reading of the book will show that the story is more complicated, and the learning we derive from it much deeper,
than we might have suspected.
I see in the book of Jonah a story of a man running away from a divinely appointed task of helping other people
change for the better.
What is so difficult about Jonah's assignment, however, is that the people he has been instructed to change are the
people he hated, the people he was angry with, his enemies.
Jonah's story is not just about any old type of repentance. It is about the most difficult and really the most
important teshuvah of all - witnessing and participating in the change of our enemies.
Allow me to share a few more details of the Jonah story and you will understand what I am suggesting.
Jonah is believed to have lived during the reign of Jeroboam II, the last king of the northern kingdom of Israel.
In the retelling of Jeroboam's many conquests, Jonah's name is mentioned. In these same lines we also read that
Israel's greatest enemy was Assyria. And Assyria's capital was Nineveh.
One day God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, the city in the country with whom his people are fighting, and help those
people change, repent, and connect to God. Can you imagine? This, for us, might be like God telling Dick Cheney to
go and find Osama bin Ladin and help him to embrace pluralism and democracy and to love all people. Or, on a more
personal level, each one of us might be asked to go to the person with whom we are most upset, the one who hurt us,
who took our job, divulged our secrets and abused our friendship - and become a part of their lives in order to
help them change and become a better person. Just as many of us would, Jonah turns his back and runs, as fast as he
can, in the opposite direction.
Helping your enemy is truly the hardest and highest type of teshuvah.
As much as Jonah's story relates to each of us personally, I find that its message speaks even more directly to the
painful, horrible and tragic situation in Israel today.
This book is a tale for our time, with many parallels between Jonah and Israel, as well as Nineveh and the
Palestinians. The message, that Jonah, who stands in for all Israel, must approach the people he hates and not only
witness but also participate in their change, is as loud and clear and as relevant to us today as it was thousands
of years ago.
On the surface, the connections between our ancient book and Israel today are obvious. I'm sure many of you see how
Jonah's Israel and the Ninevites might be paralleled to our Israel and the Palestinians. Both situations relate to
two communities quite close in proximity, who want the same land. Both think the other is responsible for many
injustices, and in both there have been not just one, but many violent wars between the two peoples.
These parallels are easy to see and accept, but I believe that there are a number of more significant similarities
which we need to acknowledge, similarities which are painful and embarrassing, parallels that we must recognize if
we, as a people, are to ever become like Jonah and embrace God's command to approach our enemies and help them to
change.
One such parallel that I see in Jonah of old and Jews today is our unwillingness to see the humanity of the enemy.
To Jonah the Ninevites were sub-human, unworthy of God's attention, not to mention the attention and care of their
fellow human beings.
In chapter 1 Jonah says: "I will not go outside the land of Israel to the place where the divine presence does not
dwell." What does Jonah mean by this? To me this suggests that Jonah believes God is only connected to the Jewish
people. Jonah doesn't want to go to Nineveh where he will learn that God does indeed dwell with people who aren't
Jewish and even shows them compassion and love. Throughout the entire book and certainly in the last sentences
God's message to us rings out - "I care about all human beings. Those people of Nineveh are my children too. I want
them to change how they live and I am asking you, as a fellow human being, to ensure that they have all of the
necessities, comforts, rights and privileges that you have."
Sadly, I feel these same sentiments from many people I know and from much of the literature I read from Israel
today. Do we believe as Jonah did, that God only dwells within our Jewish homes? Do we think that God doesn't weep
at the sight of guns being pointed at Palestinian teenagers? I know that God weeps. And I know too that God
condemns those Jews who have taken to labeling the entire Palestinian people as terrorists.
Only when we realize that both Jews and Palestinians are God's children, sharing the same humanity, and when we
accept as well that both are victims and both are deeply wounded, only then can we begin to acknowledge God's
command and turn to start our journey to our Nineveh.
Of course, we are not alone in this skewed view of "the other." Of course the door swings both ways. Our
Palestinian neighbors are also guilty of closing their eyes to the suffering and pain of our people. The story of
Jonah is part of their tradition too and they must also hear God's call for them to approach us, their enemy. But
what if they don't come? What if they refuse to listen to God's command?
As upsetting and unfair as that may be, we must remain committed to fulfilling God's expectation of us. Our people
have accepted the title "or la-goyim" "light unto the nations". Even if the Palestinians don't follow God's
command, and even if our efforts to reach out to them in the past have failed, we are not free of our
responsibility to bring enlightenment to others - spiritual insights, emotional stability and even physical
security. This is our moral obligation.
Whether the Palestinian people accept their role in the Jonah story or not, our role is crystal clear.
I see another connection between the story of Jonah and the reality of the Middle East today in the unhealthy
mentality Jonah exhibits in chapter 4. There he shows his chauvinistic and self centered view of the world. He
denies any connection between the Jews and the people of Nineveh. Listen to Jonah's words to God as he reflects
back on their first conversation. "That is what I told you when I was on my land!"
Rabbi Ben Hollander imagines God's response: "what do you mean 'your' land? Have you let a pretentious and
presumptuous patriotism poison your soul? And do you think that your unwillingness to help others change is a way
to protect 'your' land and 'your' people?" I remind you, Jonah, to whom the earth belongs! And if you think that
other's suffering has nothing to do with you, simply look up at the frail sukkah under which you sit. It stands
upright due to the interconnectedness of its parts, so human beings survive and are protected, not by power, but by
the interaction of their common humanity."
We live in a world where all peoples and lands are increasingly interconnected. From economics and the environment
to health and hunger, what we do will affect our cousins half way around the world. Further, as so many of our
rabbis have pointed out, the forces that lead people to feel outrage, anger and desperation eventually impact on
everyone's daily lives. Raise children in circumstances where they must live by begging, put them in refugee camps
and tell them that they have no "right of return" to their homes, treat them as though they are less valuable and
deserving of respect because they are part of some despised national or ethnic group and you will produce a
world-wide population of people who feel depressed, angry, unable to care about others and even willing to end
their own lives to make a statement about their worth.
I see this in Israel, where some Israelis have taken to dismissing the entire Palestinian people as "murderers" but
never ask themselves: "what might we have contributed towards making this seem to Palestinians to be a reasonable
path of action today?"
As Jonah did, we live in a world largely out of touch with itself, filled with people who, like Jonah, have
forgotten how to recognize and respond to the sacred in each other. Who have lost focus of the fact that we are all
interconnected and the safety, security and well being of one people affects all peoples
When will this tragic situation come to an end? Sadly, I believe Israel is still in chapter 2 of the book of Jonah
- hiding in the ship, trying to fight the storm raging around her by withdrawing into herself. We need some time in
the belly of the fish where we will be forced to sit alone and contemplate our relationship with others, our
interdependedness and our humanity. There, we will realize that we cannot escape God's command to go to our
Nineveh. We need a Jonah who, in spite of his lack of understanding of God's position, realizes he has a mission
and that he has the potential to bring about repentance, renewal and peace.
There is no question, too, that we need the Palestinians to become more familiar with this story. Of course the
Ninevites do repent. They put on sack cloth and ashes and atone for their wickedness for three days. Perhaps the
Palestinians are also stuck in chapter two. Most have not yet heard the message, nor begun the process of
repentance and change. Clearly, there is much for the Palestinians to learn from this story, but today is our day
to listen to this tale and hear God speaking to us from within the story. "Go there; meet them, as hard and painful
as it is, help them to change so that you can all have peace."
What greater message could we hear on this day? Personally and collectively, we must face the most difficult and
important teshuvah there is. This is the message of Jonah. This is the meaning of Yom Kippur.
So this coming Yom Kippur, please consider braving your afternoon hunger and returning for the service of
forgiveness and healing where this complex, compelling and challenging story will be read aloud. There we will hear
the voice of God pleading with us to be instruments of change; commanding us to approach even our worst enemies and
help them to repent, to see the world through a divine lens, to make a better life for them and for us.
As you know, the narrative concludes without indicating Jonah's response to God's plea. In truth Jonah is Israel,
each one of us - all of us. God is anxiously awaiting our response.
Amen.