Talmud su Giona 3:11

MISHNAH: How is the order of the fast days? One removes the Ark¹This statement confirms that in Mishnaic times the Ark containing the Torah scrolls was a movable chest, not part of the synagogue building. This is confirmed by the archeological evidence that in early Galilean synagogues the entrance was in the South. For prayers the Ark was moved from the storage room to the entrance; the reader stood before the Ark, and everybody was praying in the direction of Jerusalem, facing the Ark. In Amoraic times the Ark became part of the building in the South wall and the entrance was moved to the North. to the town plaza²The town square accommodating a maximum number of people. and gives burnt ashes³The Mishnah explicitly excludes dust which is not ash. on top of the Ark, and on the head of the Patriarch, and on the the head of the presiding judge; also each individual takes and puts on his head. The Elder among them gives an exhortatory sermon: Our brothers, it is not said about the people of Nineveh, God saw their sackcloth and their fasting, but God saw their deeds that they repented their evil ways⁴Jonah3:10., and what does it say in prophecy? And tear your hearts and not your clothes, and return to the Eternal, your God⁵Joel2:13..

Rebbi Simeon ben Laqish said, the people of Nineveh repented in trickery. What did they do⁵³Babli 16a.? Rebbi Ḥuna in the name of Rebbi Simeon ben Ḥalfuta⁵⁴In A: R. Ḥanania in the name of Resh Laqish.: They put calves inside and their mothers outside, foals inside and their mothers outside; these were mooing from one side and those mooing from the other side. They said, if He does not have mercy on us we shall not have mercy on them. That is what is written⁵⁵Joel 1:18., how the animals groan, are cattle herds confused, etc. Rebbi Aḥa said, that is what they do in Arabia. They should be covered by sack-cloth, humans and animals, and call on God in force⁵⁶Jonah 3:8.. What means “in force”? Rebbi Simeon ben Ḥalfuta said, the brash one wins over the proper one⁵⁷Cf. Babli Sanhedrin 105a., so much more if it is for the good of the world. Each man shall repent his evil ways and robbery in their hands. Rebbi Joḥanan said, what they had in their hands they returned, what was in a chest, a trunk and a cupboard they did not return.