Yom Kippur: Why Jonah?

In the synagogue I attended in my youth, the only time the honor of receiving an Aliyah to the Torah were sold was the High Holidays and Simchas Torah. The most expensive Aliyah was always Maftir Yonah, the final Torah reading during the afternoon service on Yom Kippur in which the section from the Book of Jonah is chanted as the Haftorah.
This is not Jonah’s first appearance during the High-Holiday season. For the past two weeks in the daily recitation of the penitential prayer of slichos in the dawn, we invoked the merit of Jonah whose prayers were answered while treading inside the large fish.
What is the reason that the supplementary reading of the haftorah on Yom Kippur is chanted from the book of Jonah? Why has the prophet Jonah achieved the paradigmatic level for Teshuva, true penitence?

Many commentators understand the reading as an invocation the merit of Jonah’s repentance, and also the merit of the happy ending in which Jonah successfully galvanized the entire city of ninveh to contrition & submission.

Other Commentators posit that perhaps this is the story of infidelity, rebellion, and sheer perfidy. And perhaps the hero Jonah began not as such a hero, rather somewhat clouded.
The truth is that yes, Jonah had a shaky beginning. This is the story of a real person who in his quest to save the sinning Jews by not having them contrasted with the repentant Ninvei'ites, jeopardized his own personal relationship with the omniscient & omnipotent being. And hear this: not only DID JONAH RUN AWAY from obeying the command of G-d, the Almighty himself abetted in Jonah's absconding, and this is what we shall focus on.

The midrashic work, Pirkei Direbi Eliezar maintains that when Jonah went down to the port in Jaffa, there were no ships docked. The ship to Tarshish had departed two days previously. God thereupon caused a strong wind to blow at sea which forced the ship back to the Jaffa port. When Jonah saw the ship returning, he rejoiced, because he viewed the ships return as divine approval for his actions.

Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Gibirol (11th Century Spain) observes that although Jonah was attempting to flee from G-d, the L-rd himself assisted Jonah in his bolting. In his words "even when man is rebelling against G-d, the L-rd insures that the rebellion stems forth from the Almighty. He frees himself from G-d, with the help of the G-d. He runs away from G-d, together with G-d."

The Babylonian Talmud (Makos 10b) takes it a step further. Rav Huna states “biderech sheadam rotzeh leileich, bah molichin oso,” in the path that a person wishes to go, in that very path [the angels who are created by ones wills and desires to perform mitzvahs or G-d forbid aveiros] lead the person. We control our destiny. (Maharsha ibid)

Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna, commonly known as the The Vilna Gaon (Genius of Vilnius, 1720 – 1797) elaborates on the Pirkei Direbi Eliezer’s version regarding Jonah's disappearance, that Jonah was joyous because he didn't realize the caveat of biderech sheodom rotzeh leileilech molichin oso, our desires dictate our actions. Free will reigns supreme. This view of the Vilna Gaon was his guiding shibboleth. Namely when the Vilna Gaon was asked "vee azoi vakst min a gaon" How does one become a gaon, a great sage? He replied "Vil-nor, vestu zein a gaon"-If you only desire as such, you will become a gaon!

So what changed with Jonah? What was the fulcrum that transformed Jonah the obfuscated prophet to becoming Jonah the hero, Jonah the man of mission, Jonah the paradigm of repentance? The answer is that it's the same Jonah. It's just a different desire. A new leaf, a clean slate, a 180 degree transformation. And that transformation was caused by desire, only desire.

In fact, Rabbi David Abudraham ( Spain , 14th Century), explains that the lesson from Jonah is that it’s impossible to escape from G-d. Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, the Chofetz Chaim (1838-1933) in his commentary Shaar Hatzion explains this to mean that G-d’s desire will always prevail. Jonah took the most drastic steps to avoid prophesying for G-d, and although he successfully ran away, G-d swallowed him back up, and ultimately he prophesied as commanded by G-d. The lesson for us is not to give up on ourselves. G-d will go to the extreme to ensure our success, so let’s begin today. We will end up fulfilling our mission on this world either in this lifetime or in a resurrected state, so we might as well not push it off any longer. That is the message from Jonah and that’s the focus with the conclusion of Yom Kippur.

For clarities sake, clearly Jonah was a Righteous all along as the Jerusalem Talmud states, just this action requires elucidation.

This reading of Jonah occurs in our last prayer before Ne'eila. This is the final presentation of our case before the closing arguments of Ne'eila. Now all that we need is the Vilner-the desire to strive for higher spiritual callings. May we all be blessed with the vilner, and may we all merit to have our prayers answered through our invocation of mi she'ana liyona bimei hadaga hu ya'aneinu. Have a Gmar Chasima Tova!