Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Jonas 3:10

The elder among them says in front of them words of admonition, “Brothers, it does not say of the people of Nineveh, ‘And God saw their sackcloth and their fasting,’ but, ‘And God saw their deeds, for they turned from their evil way. (Jonah 3:10)’ And in the prophets it says, ‘And rend your heart and not your garments” (Joel 2:13). The elder among the people now reminds them that the external motions are meant to invoke inner teshuvah, repentance. When God sees that Nineveh has repented, He says that He has seen their deeds and not that He has seen their external signs. Similarly, Joel tells the people that they should rend their hearts, meaning tear their hearts so that they repent, and not merely their external garments. Note that the mishnah emphasizes this message at the very point at which they are describing the intricate ritual of the Taanit. It is as if they wish to warn us of the danger of slipping into “ritualism” a fixation on the external at the expense of the more important internal.

The fourth attribute of repentance. He commits no sin because he fears troubles and people who would punish him, as we find concerning the city of Nineveh. They did not repent until they were punished and Jonah made the people afraid that the city of Nineveh would be destroyed in forty days. They immediately repented out of fear, yet the Holy One accepted their repentance because they had regret. Thus, the Holy One accepted their prayer and repentance, as the Talmud says in [tractate Ta’anit] chapter two. The one who dons a sack or fasts does not help much, but repentance and good deeds do help, as the verse says concerning the city of Nineveh, “God saw what they did, how they were turning back from their evil days” [Jonah, 3:10].²¹B. Ta’anit, 16a. This means, the Holy One saw their good deeds and they had regret for their evil deeds, but fasting and donning a sack were not mentioned.

ולא יהיה הדבר ולא יבא, assuming that repentance and good deeds did not persuade G’d to postpone the decree as He did in response to the repentance and entreaty of Chizkiyah, King of Yehudah whose prayer resulted in his death, announced by the prophet Isaiah, being put on hold for 15 years. (Kings II 20,1-6, as well as Jonah’s prediction that Nineveh was doomed which was rescinded completely, as per Jonah 3,10)