This is in the merit of my grandmother Esther bat Mazal. May she have a speedy and complete recovery.
A note: Comments within double brackets, [[abc]], are notes I write for myself so that when I look back later on the topics I discussed, I see all the sources I looked at and how I understood them. Readers are encouraged to skip them.
A Clarification for last week's devar Torah: The Blessing before Torah is recited only once each day, in the morning.
Question:
Describing the Yom Kippur procedure:
"He [Aaron] shall then take the two goats, and stand them before God at the Communion Tent entrance. Aaron shall place two lots on the two goats one lot [marked] 'for God,' and one [marked] 'for Azazel.' Aaron shall present the goat that has the lot for God so that it will [later] be prepared as a sin offering. The goat that has the lot for Azazel shall remain alive before God, so that [Aaron] will [later] be able to make atonement on it and send it to Azazel in the desert" (Leviticus 16:7-10).
According to the Ramban, Azazel means Satan. What does it mean that we send a goat to Satan?! (Remember, Satan is not an independent power.)
The True Truth
Much of this comes from my teachers Rabbi David Fohrman and Rabbi Ariel Greenberg. However, some thoughts are my own so if something seems odd or wrong, do not ascribe it to my teachers.
During Yom Kippur, we read the book of Jonah. I will assume that we all are familiar with at least the basics of the story, the command to preach in Nineveh, Jonah's flight, being swallowed by a big fish, etc.
The question we must ask is why do we read the book of Jonah on Yom Kippur? If it is because we are to be inspired by Nineveh's Teshuva, why not only read chapter 3, and moreover, there are other, perhaps more inspiring acts of repentance in Tanach. There must be a deeper reason why we read Jonah on Yom Kippur.
Textually too, one glaring question jumps out at us, G-d commanded Jonah to travel to Nineveh to tell them to repent, why does Jonah run away? This seems ludicrous! Does Jonah, a prophet, really think he can run away from G-d? The answer must be no but then, why would he do it?
Jonah himself actually reveals this to us. After the inhabitants on Nineveh perform Teshuva:
"God saw their deeds, that they had repented of their evil way, and the Lord relented concerning the evil that He had spoken to do to them, and He did not do it. Now it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was grieved. And he prayed to the Lord and said, "Please, O Lord, was this not my contention while I was still on my land? For this reason I had hastened to flee to Tarshish, for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, with much kindness, and relenting of evil. And now, O Lord, take now my soul from me, for my death is better than my life'" (Jonah 3:10-4:3).
Jonah was upset that G-d would not destroy Nineveh. He knew that if he preached in Nineveh, they would perform Teshuva, and G-d, being "a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, with much kindness, and relenting of evil" would not destroy them. Jonah ran because he did not want Nineveh to be spared. And apparently, he prefers dying than seeing Nineveh forgiven! Let us try to understand Jonah's position.
First, we must compare Jonah's description of G-d to one found in the Torah, the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy revealed to Moses after the Sin of the Golden Calf (see Exodus chapter 34).
Exodus:
Hashem, Hashem, a merciful and kind G-d, slow to anger, with much kindness, and truth. He remembers deeds of love for thousands [of generations], forgiving sin, rebellion and error.
Jonah:
gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, with much kindness, and relenting of evil
The difference is apparent. Jonah has in the words of a friend of mine, 'jacked with thirteen Attributes of Mercy' and has replaced the "Truth" with "Relenting of Evil." Jonah is accusing G-d of not being truth. That instead of being true and punishing evildoers, He relents from punishing. Essentially, Jonah is saying G-d is a pushover!
Unlike G-d, Jonah says he knows truth. His father's name is אֲמִתַּי (Amitai), from אמת meaning truth. Jonah is the son of truth, he knows that truth = judgment. You sin, you die.
To strengthen Jonah's argument, our Sages state that Nineveh did not perform complete teshuva (Yerushalmi Taanis 2:1) and we can infer this from the text.
[[See however the Mishnah Taanis 2:1]]
The King of Nineveh commanded that "…everyone shall repent of his evil way and of the dishonest gain which is in their hands" (Jonah 3:8).
G-d saw that "…they had repented of their evil way, and the Lord relented concerning the evil that He had spoken to do to them, and He did not do it" (Jonah 3:10).
It seems that they abandoned "their evil way" but not "dishonest gain." Their teshuva was incomplete. And yet, G-d accepted it. And it seems that it was this, the acceptance of incomplete teshuva, that Jonah objected to. Jonah certainly agrees with complete teshuva, which results in a person's complete transformation, 'killing' the sinner and leaving a truer self in its place. But partial teshuva, that is falsehood! And Jonah would rather die than see falsehood.
[[See Malbim, although he ties this into Jonah not wanting Israel to look bad.]]
In chapter 4, G-d proves to Jonah he is wrong.
G-d miraculously creates a gourd that protects Jonah from the sun. The next day, He kills the gourd and Jonah feels the sun's full force.
"And G-d said to Jonah; 'Are you very grieved about the gourd?'
And he said, 'I am very grieved even to death.'
And Hashem said: 'You took pity on the gourd, for which you did not toil nor did you make it grow, which one night came into being and the next night perished. Now should I not take pity on Nineveh, the great city, in which there are many more than one hundred twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left, and many beasts as well'" (Jonah 4:9-11).
G-d tells Jonah, you have no right to be upset about the gourd, according to truth, it shouldn't exist; plants don't appear overnight! Nineveh, they are a great city, according to truth, they too should die, but look, they don't know what they are doing.
Jonah, could respond that he wants the gourd back, for the simple reason that it protected him from the scorching sun. Jonah would say, even though the gourd's existence ignored the rules of nature, because it had a useful purpose, we could say that truth could make room for its existence.
G-d would then tell Jonah that he has a valid claim. If the gourd deserves to exist simply because it serves a purpose, so too Nineveh, that they are G-d's children too, and as such, have a mission in this world and can do so much good! And unlike the gourd, which according to nature, should not exist at all, the people of Nineveh have already taken the steps in the right direction. Thus, truthfully, Nineveh should remain!
G-d loves us, more than we can ever imagine. We read Jonah on Yom Kippur because, we see that, at least at the start, all we must do is start heading in the right direction, the right direction towards our true selves, our mission, and our destiny.
Food for further thought and discussion:
How do we make sure we continue to travel in the right direction?
May are being written and sealed in the book of life be completed,
Mordechai
A note: Comments within double brackets, [[abc]], are notes I write for myself so that when I look back later on the topics I discussed, I see all the sources I looked at and how I understood them. Readers are encouraged to skip them.
A Clarification for last week's devar Torah: The Blessing before Torah is recited only once each day, in the morning.
Question:
Describing the Yom Kippur procedure:
"He [Aaron] shall then take the two goats, and stand them before God at the Communion Tent entrance. Aaron shall place two lots on the two goats one lot [marked] 'for God,' and one [marked] 'for Azazel.' Aaron shall present the goat that has the lot for God so that it will [later] be prepared as a sin offering. The goat that has the lot for Azazel shall remain alive before God, so that [Aaron] will [later] be able to make atonement on it and send it to Azazel in the desert" (Leviticus 16:7-10).
According to the Ramban, Azazel means Satan. What does it mean that we send a goat to Satan?! (Remember, Satan is not an independent power.)
The True Truth
Much of this comes from my teachers Rabbi David Fohrman and Rabbi Ariel Greenberg. However, some thoughts are my own so if something seems odd or wrong, do not ascribe it to my teachers.
During Yom Kippur, we read the book of Jonah. I will assume that we all are familiar with at least the basics of the story, the command to preach in Nineveh, Jonah's flight, being swallowed by a big fish, etc.
The question we must ask is why do we read the book of Jonah on Yom Kippur? If it is because we are to be inspired by Nineveh's Teshuva, why not only read chapter 3, and moreover, there are other, perhaps more inspiring acts of repentance in Tanach. There must be a deeper reason why we read Jonah on Yom Kippur.
Textually too, one glaring question jumps out at us, G-d commanded Jonah to travel to Nineveh to tell them to repent, why does Jonah run away? This seems ludicrous! Does Jonah, a prophet, really think he can run away from G-d? The answer must be no but then, why would he do it?
Jonah himself actually reveals this to us. After the inhabitants on Nineveh perform Teshuva:
"God saw their deeds, that they had repented of their evil way, and the Lord relented concerning the evil that He had spoken to do to them, and He did not do it. Now it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was grieved. And he prayed to the Lord and said, "Please, O Lord, was this not my contention while I was still on my land? For this reason I had hastened to flee to Tarshish, for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, with much kindness, and relenting of evil. And now, O Lord, take now my soul from me, for my death is better than my life'" (Jonah 3:10-4:3).
Jonah was upset that G-d would not destroy Nineveh. He knew that if he preached in Nineveh, they would perform Teshuva, and G-d, being "a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, with much kindness, and relenting of evil" would not destroy them. Jonah ran because he did not want Nineveh to be spared. And apparently, he prefers dying than seeing Nineveh forgiven! Let us try to understand Jonah's position.
First, we must compare Jonah's description of G-d to one found in the Torah, the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy revealed to Moses after the Sin of the Golden Calf (see Exodus chapter 34).
Exodus:
Hashem, Hashem, a merciful and kind G-d, slow to anger, with much kindness, and truth. He remembers deeds of love for thousands [of generations], forgiving sin, rebellion and error.
Jonah:
gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, with much kindness, and relenting of evil
The difference is apparent. Jonah has in the words of a friend of mine, 'jacked with thirteen Attributes of Mercy' and has replaced the "Truth" with "Relenting of Evil." Jonah is accusing G-d of not being truth. That instead of being true and punishing evildoers, He relents from punishing. Essentially, Jonah is saying G-d is a pushover!
Unlike G-d, Jonah says he knows truth. His father's name is אֲמִתַּי (Amitai), from אמת meaning truth. Jonah is the son of truth, he knows that truth = judgment. You sin, you die.
To strengthen Jonah's argument, our Sages state that Nineveh did not perform complete teshuva (Yerushalmi Taanis 2:1) and we can infer this from the text.
[[See however the Mishnah Taanis 2:1]]
The King of Nineveh commanded that "…everyone shall repent of his evil way and of the dishonest gain which is in their hands" (Jonah 3:8).
G-d saw that "…they had repented of their evil way, and the Lord relented concerning the evil that He had spoken to do to them, and He did not do it" (Jonah 3:10).
It seems that they abandoned "their evil way" but not "dishonest gain." Their teshuva was incomplete. And yet, G-d accepted it. And it seems that it was this, the acceptance of incomplete teshuva, that Jonah objected to. Jonah certainly agrees with complete teshuva, which results in a person's complete transformation, 'killing' the sinner and leaving a truer self in its place. But partial teshuva, that is falsehood! And Jonah would rather die than see falsehood.
[[See Malbim, although he ties this into Jonah not wanting Israel to look bad.]]
In chapter 4, G-d proves to Jonah he is wrong.
G-d miraculously creates a gourd that protects Jonah from the sun. The next day, He kills the gourd and Jonah feels the sun's full force.
"And G-d said to Jonah; 'Are you very grieved about the gourd?'
And he said, 'I am very grieved even to death.'
And Hashem said: 'You took pity on the gourd, for which you did not toil nor did you make it grow, which one night came into being and the next night perished. Now should I not take pity on Nineveh, the great city, in which there are many more than one hundred twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left, and many beasts as well'" (Jonah 4:9-11).
G-d tells Jonah, you have no right to be upset about the gourd, according to truth, it shouldn't exist; plants don't appear overnight! Nineveh, they are a great city, according to truth, they too should die, but look, they don't know what they are doing.
Jonah, could respond that he wants the gourd back, for the simple reason that it protected him from the scorching sun. Jonah would say, even though the gourd's existence ignored the rules of nature, because it had a useful purpose, we could say that truth could make room for its existence.
G-d would then tell Jonah that he has a valid claim. If the gourd deserves to exist simply because it serves a purpose, so too Nineveh, that they are G-d's children too, and as such, have a mission in this world and can do so much good! And unlike the gourd, which according to nature, should not exist at all, the people of Nineveh have already taken the steps in the right direction. Thus, truthfully, Nineveh should remain!
G-d loves us, more than we can ever imagine. We read Jonah on Yom Kippur because, we see that, at least at the start, all we must do is start heading in the right direction, the right direction towards our true selves, our mission, and our destiny.
Food for further thought and discussion:
How do we make sure we continue to travel in the right direction?
May are being written and sealed in the book of life be completed,
Mordechai
posted by Mordechai18 at 10:27 AM
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