פירוש על יונה 1:1

(1) NOW THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME UNTO JONAH - Our sages, of blessed memory, said (Jerusalem Talmud 5:1) that Jonah ben Amitai was, on his mother’s side, from the tribe of Asher, and that he was the son of the widow [of Zarephath] who sustained Elijah, and whom Elijah revived; and [our sages said further] that, on his father’s side, Jonah was from the tribe of Zebulun, as it is written in the book of Kings, “Jonah ben Amitai who was from Gath-Hepher” (2 Kings 14:25), and Gath-Hepher was in the territory of Zebulun (Joshua 19:13). And it is explained in the book of Kings (9:1-13) that Jonah was the one who anointed Jehu (Seder Olam Rabbah 18). And he prophesied to Jeroboam ben Joash (2 Kings 14:25) that he [Jeroboam] would restore the boundary of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah. And all of this was to no avail, for Israel did not repent until they were about to go into exile at the hand of the king of Assyria; and [at this time] Assyria was already ruling over them, therefore Hashem said to him [Jonah]:

The first prophecy goes until...."And the Word of Gd came to Yonah a second time." And it has two sections. The first is "The Word of Gd came to Yonah..." and the second is "And Gd said to the fish". And I have 6 questions about this.

The first questions is about Gd's command to Yonah to "get up and go to Ninveh the big city and call forth about it because its wickedness has come up before me." Why is Gd concerned about Ninveh's great sons that He sends His servants the prophets to rebuke it and straighten it. Isn't it clear from the beginning that this is the extra care that Gd takes for His nation and His portion Israel, specifically that they have this extra level of Divine Providence like it says (Deut 32:12) "Hashem alone guides him". Gd's portion is His nation, Jacob is His nachala. The other nations are under the general leadership that Hashem has given to them but among Israel are prophets that are the tools of Gd and His messengers to rebuke them and straighten their paths and Gd doesn't do this to every nation. Why did Gd therefore send Yonah to Ninveh, the city of the Chaldeans, and not to Egypt or Babylon or any other of the large nations with many wicked sinners among them.

The second question: Why did Yonah seek to flee from beore Gd like it says in the midrash, "Did he think he could from from before Hashem when it says (Psalms 139:7) 'where will I go away from Your spirit and how can I flee' and (Zecharia 4:10) 'the Eyes of Gd range across the whole land." Chazal already gave two answers for Yonah's behavior. The first is that the nations were preapred to repent and he didn't want to implicate Israel. But this is weak reasoning because perhaps Ninveh's teshuva would inspire Israel to repent and Gd would have mercy on their doings even more so since He had mercy on the nations. The second reason is that Yonah suspected that the Ninveh residents would repent and Gd would relent from His decree of destruction and they would say he was a false prophet. And this doesn't make sense to me either, since the people of Ninveh clearly believed Yonah and therefore repented based on his words and it is known that if his words inspired their repentance, that they believed his prophecy and if they didn't believe it they would not have repented. Had they not believed him, they would not have repented and then his prophecy of destruction would have come true, so there is no situation where they would consider him a false prophet. And also why does it matter to Yonah if the people of Ninveh would consider him a false prophet since he didn't live among them and after giving his prophecy could have returned to his land. Why would fear of their opinion of him cause him to flee from before Gd especially since he knows that a prophet that withholds his prophecy is liable to death.

The third question is regarding the words of the sailors on the ship that decided to pull lots to know who was responsible for the storm. Storms are natural occurances for ships so why did they think the lots would give them a true judgement about this and maybe the lots would actually give an incorrect response, implicating an innocent person like it says in the midrash on sefer yehoshua when Achan asked Yehoshua "why are you pulling lots between me and my family. If I pulled a lot between you and between Pinchas, would it not fall on one of you. What about in this case, if there was no man responsible for the storm.

The fourth question: What the sailors said to Yonah, "tell us who this trouble has come upon us and what is your work." when they already knew that the lots had fallen on Yonah and that the storm was because of him. So why did they ask who the trouble came because of. And why abut his work, where he came frm and where is he going. They were in the middle of storm so why did they need to know his work...And Yonah's response did not answer the questions. Instead he said "I am an Ivri and I fear Gd of the heavens." And the sailors responded with "what did you do" after he already told that he had fled from Gd. The whole dialogue needs to be explained.

The fifth question: Yonah said "pick me up and throw me into the sea."Since, Yonah knew it was futile to flee from Hashem, why did he not do teshuva and pray and confess and promise to complte his assigned mission since we know that nothing stands in the way of teshuva. And he was already roused against his will to repent by the sailors who said "why are you sleeping. Get up! Pray to your Gd". How did he prefer to risk his life and be thrown to the sea and stand firm in his rebellion even though he was a wise prophet of Gd.

The sixth question: Why did Hashem command the fish to spit out Yonah on the dry land. If Yonah continued to refused to repent and to listen to Gd's command why did Hashem forgive His anger when Yonah clung to his sin. He did pray inside the fish, but how did the prayer help him when he was still clinging to his sin. Woudn't this be comparable to going in a mikveh holding an abominable animal and when he withheld from sharing his prophecy he was still deserving of death inside the fish and not to be saved from there. Even his prayer demonstrated stubborness when he said "I will fulfill my vows" but we don't know of any vows he made. I will now explain these pesukim according to these questions.

The overarching theme of the prophecy is to tell us that Gd's Will will prevail forever and the words of Gd will be fulfilled forever. And therefore we can trust the prophets words about the future because Gd isn't a man who lies. And Gd already commanded as an action to Yonah to prophecy not about his nation but about Ninveh the capital city of the Kingdom of Assyria. And Yonah did not want to go because he knew Assyria would in the future do wickedness to Israel and he was disgusted by helping Assyria and Ninveh and therefore he ran away. And Gd who is the Master of man's actions made a powerful storm in the sea until the sailors were forced to throw the sinner, Yonah, into the water and even there he did not find rest because the fishi n the sea swallowed him and guarded him like the pupil of his eye until Yonah was forced to pray to Gd and He took him out and he went on his mission. Because nothing is impoosible for Gd and man is like clay in His hands and He can do whatever He Wills.

"The word of Gd came to Jonah ben Amittai..." until "the sailors feared". Our sages say that Yonah was from the tribe of Asher and he was the son of the widow who had sustained Eliyahu and he was the dead who Eliyahu had brought back to life. But Rabbi Yochana said he was from the tribe of Zevulun because when he is introduced in II Kings 14:25 weare told he is from Gat Chefer (in Zeveulun's portion). Rabbi Levi says that his mother was from Asher and his father was from Zevulun (who was blessed to dwell by the sea until Tzidon" and he went down to Yaffo and found a ship going to Tarshish, and Elisha trusted him as prohet to deliver the messenger abut annointng Yehu ben Nimshi as King and because he was trustworthy, he was called "Amitai" And from this were learn taht this wasi n the Kingdom of Efraim before Sancherib destroyed the Shomrom but after the Assyrians defeated the tribe of Reuben, Gad, and half of Menashe that were on the other side of the Jordan and after they exiled Zebulun and Naftali and there is no doubt that all the other prophets who remained were scared of the King of Assyria that he would come and destroy the Shomron like he did to the previously exiled tribes. And this fear was in the hearts of the wise of Israel and therefore affected Yonah's actions as will be explained in this book and what Gd commanded Yonah to (Yonah 1:2) go to Ninveh the big city which was the capital with the king's throne. And the Ibin Ezra explains that the big city for Gd because the Ninveh people feared Gd from early days but only now in the days of Yonah had begun to sin and do eveil in the eyes of Gd and only because they had previously been righteous did Gd command his prophet to rebuke them. But I disagree wit hthis and I explain " a great city for Gd" in a different way.

And it isn't fitting to explain "call upon it because there wickedness has come before" that hte point was to inform the city of the wickedness rather the point was to tell that Gd had decreed that they would be overturned rather it is translated like (Isiah 58:1) to call out loud and not be silent. To rebuke them and frighten them and this is because their wickedness has come up before Gd. And this wasn't in order to have Providence on them with Divine Providence like Israel and to straighten their deeds and to save them from plauge but rather because they were decreed by Gd to destroy the tribes of Israel and Shomron and it's suburbs fro mtheir sins through Assryia. Therefore Gd wanted to saved Assyria from the wickedness that would come upon them because of the violence in their hands in order to save Assyria from destruction so they could be the weapon of Gds wrath as they are refered to as "Assyria the rod of My anger." and therefoere Gd wanted to straighted their ways of the capitol city Ninveh, the head of the Kingdom of Assyria and this is why Yonah was sent to Ninveh to call upon it and not because Gd loved them and desired them, rather to save them from the evil so they would in the future be prepared for their mission against Israel. Which answers the first question.