By International Artist/Sculpture Phillip Ratner z”l
Rabbi Jonathan Kligler: A Yom Kippur Teaching-Is Anger Better for You, Jonah
Rabbi Jonathan Kligler
You can read more from Rabbi Kligler at https://jonathankligler.substack.com/
Dear Friends,
Every year on the afternoon of Yom Kippur the Book of Jonah is recited. I have yet to tire of this tale. The Book of Jonah is only four brief chapters. It is a finely wrought parable, a teaching story. The Book of Jonah explores the central questions of this most holy of days: Is change possible? Do people deserve a second chance? Can we choose forgiveness and compassion over anger and harsh judgments?
Jonah the prophet is the anti-hero of the story, the everyman, and he is us. As the story opens, God calls to Jonah and tells him to travel east to Nineveh, the capital city of the great Assyrian Empire. The city has fallen into sin. God sends Jonah to announce to the Ninevites sinfulness and to warn them that God will punish them unless they repent and change their ways.
Jonah wants none of this. He runs as far as he can in the other direction, boarding a ship westward towards Tarshish. God calls up a fierce storm to prevent Jonah’s escape. Jonah admits to the crew that the turbulence is on his account, and that they should toss him overboard to quell the tempest. With great reluctance the sailors toss him overboard, and the storm immediately abates. God sends the famous fish (not named as a whale in the original text) who swallows Jonah whole. Jonah reflects for three days, and then determines that he will fulfill the mission that God assigned to him, and prays for his release. The fish spits him ashore.
God freely gives Jonah a second chance to do the right thing. Jonah travels to Nineveh and walks through the city, warning the people that they will be doomed if they do not repent of their evil ways. And the people listen to his warning! Even the king rises from his throne, takes off his royal robe, and fasts and prays and promises to change. The king orders the entire population, great and small alike, to do the same.
Meanwhile, Jonah has found a perch outside the city, hoping for a great show of fire and brimstone from above. Jonah wants Nineveh to get what’s coming to it. But God has forgiven Nineveh, and there will be no Divinely decreed destruction. And now Jonah and God have a conversation. Jonah rants to God (and I paraphrase): “Lord, this is why I ran away in the first place when you called – I know that your nature is to forgive, and that you would forgive the Ninevites. After all, you proclaimed your essential attributes to Moses on Mount Sinai, that you are filled with grace and compassion, are slow to anger, abound in kindness, and forgive wrongdoing. But, damn it, the Ninevites deserve to be punished, and furthermore, I look like a fool, having warned them of consequences that now will not occur! I knew this would happen! Please, just kill me now, I’m so furious and disgusted with humankind.”
God replies only with a question: “Is anger better for you, Jonah?”
Jonah then builds a sukkah, a shelter, and God causes a leafy vine to grow over it to protect Jonah. Jonah loves this plant and rejoices in its shade. But the next day the plant shrivels and dies, and the sun beats down on Jonah, who becomes faint in the heat. Jonah again begs God for death.
God then poses another question to Jonah (and again I paraphrase): “Jonah, you loved that shady vine, which you did not even raise yourself. Then why should I not feel at least as much love and compassion for my creatures in that great city of Nineveh, deeply flawed though they are?
And the Book of Jonah ends hanging on these questions.
We are like Jonah: willful, quick to anger, easy to disappoint, full of grievance. Given our susceptibility to self-righteousness and anger, we are easy marks. Computer algorithms monetize our anger, as we scroll on our devices. Many political leaders feed, and then feed off of our rage, rallying us to our basest nature. Misplaced anger brings groups together in a heady froth of self-righteousness, vilifying all those who do not wave the same flag of nationality, religion, party, or ethnicity.
Yom Kippur is a day for introspection. This Yom Kippur I cannot stop thinking about God’s question to Jonah: “Is anger better for you?” The Book of Jonah is a parable, a story meant to teach us. We are meant to identify with Jonah as the stubborn protagonist, but we are also meant to identify with all the other players as well. We are like Jonah in our quickness to anger, but we are also like the king of Nineveh, able to recognize when we have lost our way, and able to express remorse and the will to do better. And since Judaism teaches us that we are made in God’s image, we are also potentially like God in our capacity to manifest grace and compassion, slowness to anger, and forgiveness.
So this year, when I find myself swept up by rage and resentment, my commitment is to honestly reflect on God’s question: “Is anger really better for you?”
With hopes, prayers and intentions for a better year ahead,
Love,
Rabbi Jonathan Kligler
