Комментарий о цитате к Йона 4:3

HORGEINI NA HAROG’ (KILL ME, I PRAY THEE). This means that Thou should send upon me those that kill by the sword, for it is better for me to die¹⁸⁷Jonah 4:3. even by the sword of man than to live¹⁸⁷Jonah 4:4. with this grief. It is possible that the sense [of the term horgeini] is “take my life” [and not, as explained before, that it means death by human agency]. A similar [usage of the term is found in these verses]: and let their men be ‘harugei maveth’ (slain of death), and their young men smitten of the sword in battle;¹⁸⁸Jeremiah 18:21. and breathe ‘baharugim ha’eileh’ (upon these slain).¹⁸⁹Ezekiel 37:9. The reference there [according to the plain meaning of Scripture] is to those who died a natural death in the exile (see in R’dak’s commentary there). According to the tradition of the Sages, that the dry bones were those of the tribe of Ephraim who left Egypt thirty years before the exodus and were killed on the way by the men of Gath (see Ramban Vol. II, p. 157), the term baharugim is to be understood literally: “upon those that were killed [by the sword]” (R’dak).

ואיננו כי לקח אותו אלוקים, “he had disappeared as G-d had taken him.” [In the Torah commentary of Samuel DavidLuzatto, (translated recently by this editor) this formulation is understood as definite proof that there is an afterlife of the soul in heavenly region. Ed.] According to our author, Onkelos [not in our editions, Ed,] translates the word איננו here as meaning: “he still exists,” meaning that seeing that G-d had not let him die, he will return at the time before the Messiah comes, with Elijah. He claims that this contrasts with Onkelos in all other places where the word: אין appears where he translated it as that the phenomenon described no longer existed. According to the Zohar, Chanoch died a natural death, G-d removing him from the temptation to fall victim to the wicked ways of his contemporaries. [This would explain why so many outstanding Jewish Rabbis died before reaching the age of 40, G-d rewarding them before they would succumb to more temptations on this earth. Ed.] The prophet Jonah had asked G-d to be treated thus. (Jonah 4,3) Compare also Psalms: 49,16.

Man’s potential in the celestial spheres (what is inscribed in that book) enables him to accomplish whatever it is that he will accomplish while alive on earth. When this potential is erased in G’d’s book, this means that he will die here on earth forthwith. In other words, the essence of Moses’s prayer was that unless G’d would forgive the people their sin, he, Moses, would not want to live. He simply could not bear to watch the misery that would befall his people if G’d were not to forgive them. On another occasion Moses phrased the same sentiment more directly when he said הרגני נא הרוג אם מצאתי חן בעיניך, “please kill me (now) if I have found favor in Your eyes” (Numbers 10,15). This is a typical expression used by the righteous when they experience mental anguish and despair of the usefulness of their lives. The prophet Elijah used similar language after the failure of his demonstration at Mount Carmel, when he had walked for forty days to Mount Chorev and said to G’d that He should take his soul as he had not proved more effective than other prophets who had preceded him (Kings I 19,4). Another prophet who used similar language as a death wish was Jonah who said to G’d: “please take my life for it is better that I die than that I live (Jonah 4,3).
The reason Moses added the words אשר כתבת, “which You have written,” is a reference to something new, a recognition that G’d had been the one who called the universe into existence. Anything “new” testifies to the existence of the One who created something new, just as the written word testifies to the fact that there was someone who did the writing. Moses implied that seeing it had been G’d who had initiated all these forces it was also within His power to cancel such evil decrees at will. G’d answered him that He reserved the right to erase the people who had sinned from His “book,” not the ones who had not. The fact that G’d did not even name the sinners, i.e. the Jewish people, reflects the depth of G’d’s anger at them (32,33). G’d said to Moses in effect: “You are not deserving of any punishment seeing that you have not sinned at all. However, all those who have sinned are the ones who are in line for being erased from My book.” G’d meant that He would nullify the potential of these sinners’ power as predetermined in the handbook of G’d which we described earlier. It is in line with verse 10 where G’d exclaimed that “My anger has flared against them and I will destroy them within a moment.”