Often unnoticed as the tale of Jonah being swallowed by a whale is read in synagogue on Yom Kippur is a much smaller animal. Jonah, “Yonah” in Hebrew, means a dove.
As the two Israeli scholars Menahem Blondheim and Hananel Rosenberg have noted, consideration of the dove’s characteristics holds the key to understanding the very nature of the Book of Jonah.
The dove appears early in the Bible in the Book of Genesis as the bird sent by Noah from his ark to check for dry land. It returns with an olive branch, symbolizing that peace and tranquility have been restored following the flood and renewal is at hand. In the Song of Songs, a dove is used as a metaphor for a loyal and loving partner, in verses such as “Unique is my dove, my perfect one.”
A dove is known for its repetitive cooing sound, its serene white feathers, and its agile ability to traverse long distances, soaring through the heights to return home. As another prophet, Isaiah, admires in his vision of the return of Israel’s exiles, “Who are these that float like a cloud, like doves to their cotes?” In ancient Egypt and Assyria, doves were even utilized to carry mail. Messages were inserted into a container attached to their legs.
The prophet Jonah ironically betrays his avian essence. A prophet whose voice is meant to repeat divine messages of moral improvement stays silent despite God’s command to head towards Nineveh and convince its citizens to change their evil ways.
Jonah’s righteous anger at God for giving him these instructions is reflective of his volatile personality.
And instead of honing in on his destination, he originally heads not towards Nineveh but toward Tarshish, in the opposite direction. He objects to the effort to inspire the Ninevites to return to God. Instead of soaring freely above the clouds, Jonah goes to a port, boards a cramped ship, climbs down into a dank cabin, and eventually sinks even lower, into the cramped belly of the fish.
Jonah’s betrayal is unique in his book. After all, in the story, God summons a storm to toss the ship on which Jonah tries to flee from his mission. God commands the large fish to swallow the prophet once the sailors toss him overboard. And, later, as Jonah pouts under a small tree after finally fulfilling his mission of catalyzing Nineveh’s repentance in accordance with God’s desire, God sends a worm to wither the tree and a hot wind to cause him discomfort. As Blondheim and Rosenberg put it, “The inanimate, the living and humans — all are messengers of God who fulfill their roles faithfully. They contrast with Jonah — the ‘ultimate’ messenger — who desperately seeks to evade his mission.”
Interpreters both ancient and modern have long debated Jonah’s book’s central lesson. Is it about God’s mercy prevailing over His judgment, or the power of repentance?
While in its original context, perhaps it was the former, Jewish tradition has privileged the repentance reading. After all, all that time spent praying in synagogue on Yom Kippur can essentially be distilled into the hope the people of Nineveh express when Jonah finally arrives with his warning from God. “Who knows, God may relent … and show compassion … and not bring calamity.”
Jonah, in the end, despite his objections, ends up returning to God, bringing Nineveh with him.
“Unique is my dove, my perfect one,” the midrashic collection Song of Songs Rabbah explains, “this is the Congregation of Israel. As it says (2 Samuel 7:23), ‘who is like Your people Israel, a unique nation on earth.’”
Jonah, then, is all of us.
Despite a year full of distance, imperfections, disappointment, perhaps even betrayal of our very nature, on Yom Kippur we are all doves, possessing the ability to, in the end, return home.
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 newly released “Jewish Roots of American Liberty,” “The Promise of Liberty: A Passover Haggada,” “Esther in America,” “Gleanings: Reflections on Ruth” and “Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land: The Hebrew Bible in the United States.”
