Splashing Onto the Page

Jonah has emerged from the depths in the latest brilliantly-rendered modern artistic midrash from Jordan Gorfinkel and Koren Publishers. Following graphic novel versions of the Passover Haggadah and the Scroll of Esther comes the story of that unfriendly neighborhood Israelite prophet, known for running from the divine commandment to relay a message of repentance to Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrian empire. 

Working alongside former Simpsons writer David Sacks and artists Larisa Kerzhner, Avi Blyer, Dave Youkovich and Aaron Minier, Gorfinkel has Jonah’s tale, set in the 8th century BCE, popping from the page like a contemporary Marvel comic. 

Seeking to spark talmudic-style intellectual inquiry, “The Koren Tanakh Graphic Novel: Yona” (Jonah is the translation of the Hebrew name ‘Yona’) starts with three prologues. The first is the verse from Genesis’ creation story that mentions God having created large sea creatures – a foreshadowing of the recalcitrant Jonah spending three days in the belly of a fish. The second offers a brief summary of the relevant bits of the Book of Kings which sets the stage for Jonah’s tragically successful mission, wherein despite his best efforts, Assyria heads the heavenly warning to repent … and subsequently goes on to scatter the Ten Tribes of Israel into the winds of history. The third, drawing from the midrashic collection Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, subtly reveals Jonah’s secret origin story (after all, every hero worth his salt needs one) – as the child miraculously resuscitated by the 9th-century BCE prophet Elijah. 

The book then weaves the Hebrew text and English translation alongside dynamic visuals with sound scholarship to depict the story read yearly on the afternoon of Yom Kippur. Like the best of cartoons, it offers insights and laughs to the young and subtle wisdom and sight-gags for older viewers. Children will be enraptured by the splash pages of storms and Jonah reclining while eating grapes amidst the belly of the fish that swallowed him after his attempt to avoid his prophetic mission. Those more inclined towards the nuances of historical context of, and academic scholarship on, the biblical book will delight at the accurate Assyrian statues, the street sign pointing the way to Nineveh that contains the city’s cuneiform symbol — a fish (!) — and how when the sailors on the storm-tossed ship in Chapter One toss dice hoping to determine whose fault their predicament is, one die depicts a dove, a yona.

Like the best of cartoons, it offers insights and laughs to the young and subtle wisdom and sight-gags for older viewers.

Amidst the action-packed panels are numerous call-backs to other biblical texts. The joyous relief of the disaster-averting Ninevites is accompanied by a rainbow, that symbol of salvation that followed Noah’s emergence from the flood. The king of Nineveh is, in a thought bubble, revealed to be none other than Pharaoh, the now-contrite former foe of Moses. When Jonah, in the second verse of the fourth and final chapter bitterly muses that he knew God would forgive Assyria for their wanton ways since God is “a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and relenting from evil,” the accompanying graphic makes explicit that in doing so, Jonah son of Amitai, in Hebrew “son of Truth,” is purposefully leaving out the last bit of the original rendering of God’s divine attributes, Exodus 34:6’s “The Lord, the Lord, strong, merciful, and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in goodness and truth.” The prophet of truth, after all, believes in strict justice — that the faults of sinning people should not be forgiven. 

When read on Yom Kippur, however, Jonah’s closing dialogue with God ends not with God asking whether he should not have spared the lives of Nineveh’s inhabitants. Rather, the rabbis added verses from Micah, speaking to the power of penitence, the theme of Yom Kippur: “Where is another God like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his special people? You will not stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing unfailing love. He will again have compassion on us, and tread our iniquity underfoot. May you cast to the sea-depths all our offenses. May you show faithfulness to Yaacov, kindness to Avraham as you promised our ancestors in days long ago.”

When read on Yom Kippur, Jonah’s closing dialogue with God ends not with God asking whether he should not have spared the lives of Nineveh’s inhabitants. Rather, the rabbis added verses from Micah, speaking to the power of penitence, the theme of Yom Kippur.

Perhaps these additional verses are meant to be, like those post-credit stingers in the latest comic book film adaptation, a bonus scene, Jonah’s articulation of a change of heart. He finally understands how those aspiring, like the ancient Assyrians, for the grace of forgiveness can be inspired to turn from moral and spiritual failing toward faith.

Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern is Senior Adviser to the Provost of Yeshiva University and Deputy Director of Y.U.’s Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought. His books include “The Promise of Liberty: A Passover Haggada,” which examines the Exodus story’s impact on the United States, “Esther in America,” “Gleanings: Reflections on Ruth” and “Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land: The Hebrew Bible in the United States.”