Yonah and God

Found 7 Search results

  1. The Book of Yonah

    Rabbi Yaakov Beasley

  2. Sefer Yonah - Everyman's Teshuva

    Rabbi Mosheh Lichtenstein

    תאריך פרסום: תשע"ה | |

    Rabbi Mosheh Lichtenstein analyzes the “pshat“ storyline of Sefer Yona and brings midrashic sources, too, to tease out the big ideas about teshuva that come to the fore in this short book. What is the nature of teshuva? What is teshuva all about? What is considered legitimate teshuva and what is not? A pattern of teshuva of some sort, Divine salvation, and a dialogue between God and Yona ensues. Yona may yearn for strict judgment, but God takes account of human fallibility and tempers justice with mercy. On Yom Kippur afternoon, we plead for God to have mercy regardless of whether our teshuva is human and flawed, or objectively ideal.

  3. Shallow Teshuva in Deep Waters -Real or Ideal

    HaTanakh.com Staff

  4. Prophet on the Run: Yonah and Yom Kippur

    Rabbi David Fohrman |

    This class raises two major questions on the book of Yonah: 
    1) Why does Yonah run? Doesn't he know that running from God is futile, especially as he's a prophet?
    2) What message does he learn at the end of the book (with the story of the tree)?

    A close examination of these questions reveals an entirely new approach to the book of Yonah: din and rachamim related to past and potential, and the meaning of true teshuva. 

  5. Yonah 1-2

    Matan Al Haperek

    Rabbi David Sabato

    Perek 1 opens with an introduction (1-3), which describes Yonah's mission and how he runs away from it, and includes the central question of the book: why does Yonah evade his mission to prophesy to Nineveh and decide to run away from God? The text does not give any explanation in the beginning of the book, and only toward the end we find an allusion to the reason. In the continuation of the perek we are told how Yonah's plan to run away from God goes awry, and God chases him into the ocean using His messengers- the storm and the fish. 

    After Yonah was brought to the depth of the sea in perek 1, Yonah is trapped in the belly of a fish. In the middle of perek 2 we find Yonah's prayer to God from the belly of the fish. This prayer is a turning point in the plot, and represents Yonah's return to God. 

     

  6. Yonah 3-4

    Matan Al Haperek

    Rabbi David Sabato

    Perek 3: After Yonah’s “rebirth” upon leaving the belly of the fish, Yonah starts out again on his mission. The perek opens with an additional commandment to Yonah (1-2). This time Yonah fulfills the commandment (3-4), and his prophecy bears fruit- the people of Nineveh repent (5-9) and the decree is cancelled (10). The significance of the perek becomes clear when we compare it to the first mission and its results in perek 1.

    It would seem that perek 3 is the end and the resolution of the story- the city is saved from being overturned and the mission is successful. However, having the climax of the story in perek 4 teaches us that the focus of the book is not the repentance of Nineveh, but rather the character of Yonah. While the previous perakim spoke of unilateral actions, without dialogue, this perek begins with a dialogue between Yonah and God in the city (1-4), and afterward continues to a dialogue between Yonah and God outside the city (5-11). 

  7. Yonah in the Stormy Sea

    HaTanakh.com Staff