Sermon for Kol Nidre night 5782
September 15, 2021
As I’ve previously mentioned, I’ve decided this year to structure my four High Holiday sermons around the four chapters of the Book of Jonah. On Erev Rosh Hashanah, we focused on Jonah chapter 1. On the first morning of Rosh Hashanah, we focused on Jonah chapter 2. Tonight, it’s chapter 3 that’s in the spotlight, and tomorrow morning we’ll reflect on the lessons of Jonah chapter 4. After all that, please be sure to “tune in” at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow afternoon for the Yom Kippur mincha service when we --- just like Jewish communities all around the world – will be reading the Book of Jonah itself as the haftarah for our Yom Kippur afternoon Torah service.
When we last left off our examination of the Book of Jonah at the end of Chapter 2, Jonah had spent three days and nights in the belly of the great fish. There he had uttered an emotional, poignant prayer --- not of supplication but rather of thanksgiving. Even in his darkest hour he found reason to count his blessings. Then the chapter concluded with God causing the great fish to vomit out Jonah onto the safety of dry land. End of chapter 2.
As we’ve noted earlier, that could have reasonably been the end of the story. Jonah had learned his lesson. God forgave him for his rebelliousness, and he was saved from the clutches of death.
But one of the deep lessons of the Book of Jonah – and I have to admit – one of the great lessons all of us learn in life – is that -- well --- it’s not just about us! Jonah has been through some drama in his life. All of us get to go through lots of drama in our lives – but it’s not all about us. In the case of the Book of Jonah, from a certain point of view, the main character is not Jonah but rather, the collectivity of the population of Nineveh – ha’ir hagedolah hazot/ That great city.
They are the ones facing imminent destruction!
They are the ones for whom we need to focus our concern!
And so, at the start of Chapter 3, that indeed is where our focus turns -----
וַיְהִ֧י דְבַר־ה' אֶל־יוֹנָ֖ה שֵׁנִ֥ית לֵאמֹֽר׃
ק֛וּם לֵ֥ךְ אֶל־נִֽינְוֵ֖ה הָעִ֣יר הַגְּדוֹלָ֑ה וּקְרָ֤א אֵלֶ֙יהָ֙ אֶת־הַקְּרִיאָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר אָנֹכִ֖י דֹּבֵ֥ר אֵלֶֽיךָ׃
The word of the Eternal came to Jonah a second time: “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it what I tell you.”[1]
In the Book of Jonah, unlike in every other book in the Neviim/Prophets section of the Bible, we never actually get the specific content of the prophetic message verbatim. There is no – “Koh Amar Adonai”/ “Thus sayeth the Lord” coming out of Jonah’s mouth. As far as the explicit text of Jonah chapter 3 is concerned --- all Jonah says to the Ninevites is five Hebrew words:
ע֚וֹד אַרְבָּעִ֣ים י֔וֹם וְנִֽינְוֵ֖ה נֶהְפָּֽכֶת׃
“Forty days more, and Nineveh נֶהְפָּֽכֶת!”
That last Hebrew word – nehepachet [נֶהְפָּֽכֶת] – is translated in the Jewish Publication Society commentary on the Book of Jonah as “shall be overturned.”[2] [3]
So we have ----
ע֚וֹד אַרְבָּעִ֣ים י֔וֹם וְנִֽינְוֵ֖ה נֶהְפָּֽכֶת׃
(“Od arba’im yom ve-Nineveh nehpakhet”)
“Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overturned”
Careful listeners will note that this verb – OVERTURN – is the same verb used to describe God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Book of Genesis:
וַֽיַּהֲפֹךְ֙ אֶת־הֶעָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֔ל
(“Vahafokh et he’arim ha’el”)
“[God] OVERTURNED [ וַֽיַּהֲפֹךְ֙ ] those cities … “ [4]
(The words וַֽיַּהֲפֹךְ֙ and נֶהְפָּֽכֶת being different conjugations of the same Hebrew verb)
Thus, Jonah (or more importantly, everyone hearing the tale) would understand that Jonah was being called to announce to Nineveh that its fate was to be like that of Sodom and Gomorrah.
You know, fire and brimstone and all that….
However, that verb “OVERTURN” / “lehafokh” (or, in its passive form “leheyhafekh”) is a word with a double meaning. It could mean that the City of Nineveh will be destroyed (just as Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed), but it could also mean that the City of Nineveh could, so to speak, turn over a new leaf (as might have been the case had 10 righteous people been found in Sodom and Gomorrah).
Would Jonah’s prophetic message convince Nineveh to reform its ways and do better?
To repent of its current ways and act “leheyfekh” – in the opposite way?
Could it be “nehepakhet”/ “overturned” in the positive sense of being reformed rather than being destroyed?
Indeed, that is what happens. Jonah, the reluctant prophet – Jonah, the prophet of so few words – becomes the most successful prophet in all of Biblical literature.
In the very next verse, scripture reports
וַֽיַּאֲמִ֛ינוּ אַנְשֵׁ֥י נִֽינְוֵ֖ה בֵּֽאלֹהִ֑ים
“The people of Nineveh believed God.”
What led them to be so readily convinced?
The medieval commentator David Kimchi aka “Radak” says: “They believed” because the sailors [i.e., the sailors who had been on the ship with Jonah in chapter 1] were in the city and testified about Jonah that they had cast him into the sea, and the rest of his story as it happened. This is why they believed [Jonah’s] prophecy and repented completely.[5]
And at the end of chapter 3 – a very short chapter, only 10 verses long – the episode concludes with the simple report:
God saw what they did, how they were turning back from their evil ways. And God renounced the punishment [God] had planned to bring upon them, and did not carry it out.[6]
Some contemporary commentators see this whole episode, just like the previous episodes of Jonah sleeping through a raging storm, and Jonah get swallowed up and vomited out by a great fish --- as being the stuff of satire.
It’s all just so over the top.
Let’s be honest here:
Jonah is like the
Worst. Prophet. Ever.
Yet, paradoxically, he’s the most successful prophet because -- ultimately – it’s not all about him.
Rather it’s about God’s forgiveness. And, even more importantly – it’s about the grassroots efforts of people. In Chapter 3 of the Book of Jonah it’s the people of Nineveh themselves who take action – changing their ways and, in the cultural language of the time, fasting, donning sackcloth and sitting in ashes.
The King gets into the act, but only after the people have taken all these efforts upon themselves first: The people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast, and great and small alike put on sackcloth. And when the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes.[7]
Reading and thinking about the Book of Jonah during these Yamim Nora’im/ Days of Awe leads us to think about our own society. Nineveh is a case study of a corrupt, immoral, unjust society that mends its ways, with a push from an outside observer, and with grassroots efforts of the population at large, together with its governmental leadership, working towards a common goal.
In our own country, there are plenty of “evil ways” from which we need to find common cause with our fellow Americans in order that our society might be “OVERTURNED” ---- in the good sense of the word.
To name a few of those “evil ways” :
We need lahafokh (“to overturn”) from the evils of :
Racism (including but not limited to racism against Black people)
Religious-based and ethnic-based prejudice against minority religious and ethnic groups (including but not limited to antisemitism and Islamophobia).
Excessive Income inequality
Lack of universal access to affordable health care.
Environmental degradation
Threats to voting rights
Efforts to deny pregnant women control over their own bodies.
And to these concerns we can also add the classic language of scripture that includes explicit calls for caring and compassion ----- concerns that remain as relevant today as when they were written centuries ago.
As we are called upon in the haftarah from Isaiah chapter 58 that we’ll read tomorrow morning:
To unlock fetters of wickedness,
And untie the cords of the yoke
To let the oppressed go free;
To break off every yoke.
[…] to share your bread with the hungry,
And to take the wretched poor into your home;
When you see the naked, to clothe [them],
And not to ignore your own kin.[8]
Isaiah, in the verses immediately preceding the ones I just quoted, rails against teshuvah that is merely performative --- fasting and crying out in prayer while still acting unjustly. And one wonders what his reaction would have been to the over-the-top Ninevites who not only fast, put on sackcloth and sit in ashes --- but have their animals do so as well!
And yet, such rituals can be motivational.
Isaiah doesn’t want us to stop doing ritual. He just wants us to be sure that our pious actions motivate us to action outside the confines of our synagogues and homes.
For us today, like the Ninevites of old, and like the first audiences of Isaiah, our prayers, our fasting, our Yom Kippur practices of self-denial, should serve as motivations for doing more in the remainder of the year to set ourselves and our world aright.
And, as for the Ninevites, at Jonah 3:10 we read that
וַיַּ֤רְא הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ אֶֽת־מַ֣עֲשֵׂיהֶ֔ם כִּי־שָׁ֖בוּ מִדַּרְכָּ֣ם הָרָעָ֑ה
“God saw what they did, how they were turning back from their evil ways.”
Concerning this language, the contemporary commentator Uriel Simon observes
“In penitence, deeds have greater weight than words. Accordingly it is not written that God heard their prayer but that [God] saw their deeds. [9]
And so, in the end (the end of the last verse of Chapter 3 that is),
וַיִּנָּ֣חֶם הָאֱלֹהִ֗ים עַל־הָרָעָ֛ה אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּ֥ר לַעֲשׂוֹת־לָהֶ֖ם וְלֹ֥א עָשָֽׂה׃
“God renounced the punishment [God] had planned to bring upon them, and did not carry it out.”[10]
We read the Book of Jonah on Yom Kippur to remind ourselves that even the most vile, corrupt society can right itself if we all do our part.
As for us, there is much that is good about our society and much that is good in our individual selves. We are NOT Nineveh. We are NOT Sodom. We are NOT Gomorrah. But there is still plenty of work to be done. Let’s get to it (or let’s get back to it) once Yom Kippur, this Sabbath of Sabbaths, is over.
But I know what you’re thinking: Yet again, it seems like we’ve reached the end of the story of Jonah:
Jonah has done what God asked him to do.
Jonah’s mission has succeeded.
God has been appeased.
And the Ninevites have turned from their evil ways.
But there’s still more to come to this story of Yonah Ben Amitai, the reluctant prophet.
We’ll talk about that tomorrow morning when we consider the thought-provoking final chapter of the Book of Jonah --- and we’ll read the Book of Jonah tomorrow afternoon.
Meanwhile, gmar chatimah tovah/ May we all be sealed in the Book of Life for a good year – us, our families, our friends, our country, our people and our world.
Amen.
© Rabbi David Steinberg (September 2021/ Tishri 5782)
[1] Jonah 3: 1-2
[2] The JPS Bible Commentary: Jonah, Uriel Simon, editor (p. 29)
[3] Or “overthrown.” The word is derived from the verbal root consonants hey-pey-kaf [ה.פ.כ], the basic meaning of which is to turn over, invert or reverse. (The word for “revolution” in Hebrew is מהפכה [“mahpecha”])
[4] Gen. 19:25
[5] Radak on Jonah 3:5
ויאמינו. כי אנשי האניה היו בעיר והעידו עליו כי הטילוהו אל הים וכל ענינו כמו שהיה לפיכך האמינו בנבואתו ושבו בתשובה שלמה
[6] Jonah 3:10
[7] Jonah 3: 5-6
[8] Isaiah 58: 6-7
[9] JPS Bible Commentary: Jonah (p. 33)
[10] Jonah 3:10
