Sermon Yom Kippur Afternoon 2007: Top 5 Reasons Why We Read Jonah on YK

TOP 5 REASONS WHY WE READ JONAH ON YOM KIPPUR

5. The only narrative book where nobody dies – Yom Kippur we avoid death.
- Yom Kippur a pre-emptive strike on mid life or late life crisis
- We mimick death in order to reconsider our lives, uphold life
- Jonah goes through perilous journeys (boat, whale, Nineveh) unharmed.

Notes: On Yom Kippur, we descend into ourselves by mimicking death, abstaining from eating, showering, procreating, etc. We come close to death in order to be reborn with complete purity. Likewise, Jonah moves from one perilous situation to another, constantly knocking on death’s door. But ultimately Jonah lives and is reborn from the whale as a new person with a new outlook on life. We affirm the meaning of life on Yom Kippur by reading the only narrative book in the Hebrew Bible in which nobody dies.

4. Teaches us about our role as outsiders in a non-Jewish world
- Nineveh capital of Assyria, destroyed N kingdom. Military + cultural capital.
- Jonah enters non-Jewish world (Nineveh, boat, etc) where people revere God
- In fact, it seems as though the one person who lacks faith in story is Jonah
- Role of Jew in the modern world: To maintain faith and community.
- We spend 99% of our lives in the secular world. Yet we dare preserve our faith.

Notes: Like Jonah, most of us spend almost all of our lives in the secular world. Jonah is a stranger in a strange land, a Jew who encounters only gentiles. And yet everyone he meets, from the sailors to the people of Nineveh, are not only aware of his God, but revere this God as well. In fact, it seems as though Jonah the prophet is the only character in the story that lacks faith. While we here today spend almost all of our time in the non-Jewish world, we come together on regular occasions to reaffirm our sense of community, tradition and faith. We are all Jonah, constantly managing double lives with our secular and Jewish identities. At least for today, our sides merge and we achieve the wholeness which Jonah reaches in his worldly endeavors.

3. Connection to Genesis
- We ourselves reborn on YK. Then start with world’s creation in Sukkot.
- World created on RH, judged in Noah’s generation, reborn afterwards.
- Jonah’s deep sleep – Yardama – same as Adam’s
- Midrash includes in creation the limiting of the leviathan in the sea
- God Adonai Elohim 2x in Torah, creation and here. Plus end of Neilah (p524)
- Adonai Hu HaElohim

Notes: According to the Jewish calendar, the world is created on Rosh Hashanah, judged on Yom Kippur and then the process of creation begins again on Sukkot. Likewise, Bereshit tells of the creation of the world, and then the judgment and recreation in the generation of Noah. Jonah goes through the same process, being judged by God and born anew from the mouth of the whale. Its no coincidence then that the story of Jonah and Creation have so much in common. Jonah goes into the hold of the ship and falls into a deep sleep – the Yardama. We only find this word Yardama in one other place in the bible: Adam falls into a Yardama when his rib is taken from him to create Eve. Secondly, Midrash Genesis Rabbah tells of the limiting of the Leviathan during the process of creation. The Leviathan is alluded to in the book of Job, where God recounts how the fish was conquered. Here in Job the Leviathan makes an encore appearance. But the Leviathan is powerless here; it is a puppet to God’s will, a mean to God’s end. Finally, God is called Adonai Elohim in only two places in the bible. Where? You guessed it: creation and Jonah. While Elohim is a generic name for God, Adonai is the personal name for the Israelite deity. God’s oneness is affirmed by the fusion of these names. We hearken back to creation and job in the closing words of the Neilah service, which we repeat 7 times: Adonai Hu HaElohim.

2. Bookend to the Akedah
- Akedah: We face near death like on YK, to re-establish relationship with God
- Akedah and Jonah bookends for the high holidays
- Akedah: Up (offering “olah”, go up, look up, hold up knife). We ascend on RH.
- Jonah: Down (Nineveh, boat, bottom, yordama, sea, whale). Descend on YK.
- We dip a bucket into the depths of our souls and bring out the impurities.
- In both stories, faith is challenged and God intercedes at point of absolute despair and restores hero to original state. Polar opposites.

Notes: Jonah serves as a bookend to the Akedah, the story of the binding of Isaac. We read the Akedah at the beginning of the high holidays on Rosh Hashanah morning. We read Jonah at the end, on the afternoon of Yom Kippur. In both stories, our hero’s faith is challenged and God intercedes at point of absolute despair and restores our hero to his original state. But the stories move in opposite directions. In Akedah, we ascend. Look how many times the word “La’a lot” – to go up – is used in the Akedah. Abraham is told to raise up an offering, look up to the site, go up the mountain, hold up the knife, look up at the ram, etc. We read the Akedah as we ascend on Rosh Hashanah, as we testify to God’s majesty and sovereignty. And so where does Jonah take us? Down. The key word here is “L’irod” – to go down. Jonah is told to go down to Ninevah but instead goes down to the harbor, into the very bottom of the boat, into a deep sleep (again, yardama, which is from the root L’irod), into the very bottom of the whale – its belly, to the bottom of the ocean. And so on Yom Kippur we descend deep into ourselves. Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote that on Yom Kippur, we dip a bucket into the well of our souls and dredge the impurities which have sat deep within us throughout the year. And so we follow Jonah’s descent with our own. And right around Yom Kippur afternoon we begin our ascent back to wholeness, towards rebirth.

1. Through atonement, we may change our fate.
- In the torah, once a prophecy is made, it is unchangeable.
- Deut 18:22 – If a prophet’s prophecy doesn’t come true, he is a false prophet and may be punished.
- In this system, Jonah is stuck either way.
- Book of Jonah edits Deuteronomy, says we have the power to change our future.
- This is the power of YK: To change our ways and thus uphold our freewill.

Notes: The book of Jonah illustrates that we have the power to change our fate. This idea runs contradictory to the examples given in the Torah. Like Greek mythology, the Torah says that once a prophecy is delivered, it cannot be changed. Human beings are powerless to affect their fates. In fact, Deuteronomy 18:22 tells us that if someone makes a prophecy and it doesn’t come true, they are a false prophet and may be punished; even killed! This puts Jonah in between a rock and a hard place. If he is right, then the people of Nineveh won’t listen to him and will probably kill him for insulting their city. But if he is wrong, then he will be deemed a false prophet and will be punished. But neither ends up being the case. In this way, Jonah reforms the Torah by showing us that our future is in our own hands. This is the true power of Yom Kippur: We come here today to affirm our freewill to change our ways for the better. This is the power each of us hold on this day. Once we set foot outside of the synagogue, we have the freedom and responsibility to dictate the direction in which our lives will head. This is God’s gift and our challenge. I wish you much wisdom and patience in the process. Shana Tova.