44 Jonah in the Belly of the Big Fish

Again we met, a group of friends, and discussed the "Book of Jonah". These get-togethers have already become a Yom Kippur tradition. The hosts choose a subject related to Yom Kippur and each participant draws upon his own world in order to contribute to the discussion. Here are some of the things I said as well as some after thoughts.

It is almost possible to understand the story of Jonah without recourse to God. Jonah is a man with a mission. Is there anyone who does not know a person who believes that he must do some great deed and whose entire life revolves around delaying his commitment or making any progress toward doing so. Jonah flees from his life's mission; he wants to forget it or at least to distance himself from it. But mortal danger at sea is responsible for an upheaval. The story of Jonah's slumber on the ship about to sink is wonderful and without explanation. Perhaps there is a hint here that the story or at least part of it is a dream. And perhaps the sleep is a sort of meditation, a mystic concentration before leaving the body on the way to other worlds. That is also an explanation of Jonah's "existence" in the body of the fish, that is, a sort of dream or mystic experience.

In any event Jonah's experience at sea is a revolution that changed his life. He fled to the sea as a hermit flees to the desert; nevertheless something returned him to his life's mission. What was that something?

Someone in the group asked why Jonah of all people was chosen for this mission (to call upon the people of Nineveh), and my answer is simple. A man's mission is his, and only his. Jonah's Nineveh is none else's Nineveh. Perhaps in the belly of the fish Jonah read the story "Before the Law" by Kafka and realized that his Nineveh is his entrance to the Law that was intended only for him and would close when he died. And he did not want to die like the villager before the closed entrance. Perhaps that understanding caused his drastic change.

And one more word about false prophecy. The fear of being a false prophet is mentioned in the story as a reason for Jonah's reluctance toward assuming his mission. But the one who alarms and warns and in that way is able to change and postpone a catastrophe – and his grave prophesies do not take place – perhaps he is the true prophet.