“You are gracious and compassionate to all Your handiwork.” (Yom Kippur Prayer – Repetition of the Musaf)
Dear
Friends,
On
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, we engage in the process of
“teshuvah - spiritual return. During this process, we regret and
confess our various sins and weaknesses. We are not to despair,
however, about our erring past, for teshuvah leads to atonement and
new life. For example, during the era of the Prophet Ezekiel, when
our people faced great danger, many cried out, “Since our sins and
our iniquities are upon us and we are wasting away because of them,
how can we live?” (Ezekiel 33:10). In response to this lament, the
Prophet proclaimed the following message of the Living One:
“As
I live - spoke the Master of All, the Compassionate and Just One - I
do not desire the death of the wicked person, but rather the wicked
person’s return from his way that he may live; return, return from
your evil ways - Why should you die, O Family of Israel?” (33:11)
The above verse expresses
a life-giving message of hope, and it is chanted during the
concluding service of Yom Kippur. Is this message of hope only
relevant to the Family of Israel? The answer can be found in the Book
of Jonah which we chant during the afternoon service of Yom Kippur.
This book tells the story of how the Compassionate One sent the
Prophet Jonah on a mission to the city of Nineveh, the capital city
of Assyria, which was guilty of a number of sins, especially theft.
Jonah was told to give them a warning which would prompt them to do
teshuvah. The story begins with the following passage:
“And the word of the
Compassionate One came to Jonah son of Amittai saying, ‘Arise! Go
to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against her, for their
wickedness has ascended before Me.’ But Jonah arose to flee to
Tarshish from before the Compassionate One.” (Jonah 1:1-3)
Why did this prophet of
Israel want to flee from his mission to Nineveh? The classical
biblical commentators, Rashi and the Radak, cite the following
explanation of our sages: Jonah sensed that the Gentiles were “close
to doing teshuvah.” He was therefore afraid that his mission would
succeed, and the people of Nineveh would indeed change their ways. If
so, it would point an accusing finger at his own people, who failed
to heed the call of their prophets to do teshuvah. Jonah therefore
wanted to avoid a mission which could evoke Divine judgement against
Israel.
Jonah’s love and concern
for Israel caused him to flee from his mission. The Book of Jonah
describes the unique way in which the Compassionate One caused Jonah
to return to his mission; however, that part of the story is a topic
for another discussion.
When Jonah finally arrived
in Nineveh, he proclaimed the following Divine message: “Forty days
more and Nineveh shall be overturned” (3:4). The Book of Jonah
describes how the people and their king believed the warning; thus,
they donned sackcloth and fasted. The king also proclaimed: “Everyone
shall turn back from his evil way, and from the robbery that is in
their hands” (3:8). Their teshuvah was accepted because they
changed their behavior, as it states:
“And the Just One saw
their deeds, that they returned from their evil way; and the Just One
relented concerning the evil He had said He would bring upon them,
and did not do it.” (3:10)
What was Jonah’s
reaction to their teshuvah and the Divine forgiveness which resulted?
It states:
“And it displeased Jonah
greatly and angered him. He prayed to the Compassionate One and said,
‘Please O Compassionate One, was this not my contention when I was
still on my own soil? Because of this I had hastened to flee to
Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God,
slow to anger, abundant in lovingkindness, and relent from doing
harm. So now, O Compassionate One, please take my soul from me, for
better is my death than my life” (4:1-3).
Jonah was in anguish, for
he felt that Israel would now be condemned for not doing teshuvah;
thus, he prayed that he would not live to see the destruction that
was awaiting Israel. (Commentaries of the Radak and Ibn Ezra)
Jonah left the city and
sat down to watch what would happen. The Book of Jonah then describes
how the Creator of all life taught Jonah a universal lesson:
“The Compassionate and
Just One designated a kikayon (a leafy shady plant), which rose above
Jonah to form a shade over his head, to relieve him from his
discomfort. Jonah rejoiced over the kikayon, a great joy. Then the
Just One designated a worm at the dawn of the next day, and it
attacked the kikayon so that it withered. And it was when the sun
shone that the Just One designated a stifling east wind; the sun beat
upon Jonah’s head and he felt faint. He asked for his soul’s
death, and said, ‘Better is my death than my life!’ And the Just
One said to Jonah, ‘Are you so deeply grieved over the kikayon?’
And he said, ‘I am greatly grieved to death.’
The Compassionate One
said, ‘You took pity on the kikayon for which you did not labor,
nor did you make it grow; it lived one night and perished after one
night. And I – shall I not take pity upon Nineveh the great city,
in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons
who do not know their right hand from their left, and many animals,
as well?’ ” (4:6-11).
Jonah, grieving over
Israel and over his own misery, had prayed for death. The
Compassionate One responded with a message of life! Jonah was
reminded that the Divine compassion gives human beings the
opportunity to renew life through the power of teshuvah. How did
Jonah react to this message? Midrash Yalkut Shimoni states:
“At that moment, he
(Jonah) fell upon his face and said, ‘Conduct Your world according
to the Attribute of Compassion.’ ”
In
this spirit, the Radak explains that one of the reasons why the Book
of Jonah was incorporated in our Sacred Scriptures is to teach us the
following truth:
“The
Blessed God has compassion on people from any nationality who do
teshuvah; moreover, He forgives them.”
Yes,
Jonah was concerned about the fate of Israel, but he needed to be
reminded that Israel’s fate is connected to Israel’s mission. And
the goal of this mission is expressed in the following words from a
Yom Kippur prayer: “May all creatures bow
before You and may they develop a unified society to do Your will
wholeheartedly”(Shemoneh Esrei).
Maimonides
writes in his Mishneh Torah that the fate of all human beings during
the coming year is sealed on Yom Kippur (Hilchos Teshuvah 3:3). May
the Forgiving One therefore seal all of us in the “Book of Life.”
May
we be blessed with a Good Shabbos and a “Gmar Chasimah Tovah” –
a Good Sealing!
Yosef
Ben Shlomo Hakohen (See below)
Related
Teachings:
1.
During the Ten Days of Teshuvah – from Rosh Hashana until the end
of Yom Kippur – the following verse is added to the daily Shemoneh
Esrei prayer: “Who is like You, O Father of compassion, Who in
compassion remembers His creatures for life.”
2.
Any human being can get close to the Compassionate One, as it is
written: “The Compassionate One is close to all who call upon Him,
to all who call upon Him sincerely” (Psalm 145:18). The Radak
explains that the words “all who call upon Him” apply to any
human being regardless of nationality.
Any human being can therefore pray directly to the Compassionate One
and engage in teshuvah without the need of an intermediary. There
will be a universal teshuvah in the messianic age, as it is written:
“All the ends of the earth will remember and return to the
Compassionate One” (Psalm 22:28). In his commentary on the words
“will remember,” Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch writes:
“Defection
from God was never an inborn trait with individuals or with humankind
as a whole. The unspoiled hearts of children are close to God, and
the same was true of humankind in its pristine state. Alienation from
Him came much later. Therefore, through the stimulus emanating from
Israel, they will all ‘remember’; their original consciousness of
God will come alive again, and they will ‘return’ to Him.” (The
Psalms - Translation and Commentary By Rabbi S.R. Hirsch)
Hazon
- Our Universal Vision: www.shemayisrael.co.il/publicat/hazon/
