Spiritual and
Ethical Issues in the Historical Books of Tanach;
JOSHUA, JUDGES, SAMUEL, KINGS (Nevi’im Rishonim) These four books ostensibly are merely the history of Israel from the entry into the Promised Land until the destruction of the Temple and the temporary loss of independent statehood. In fact they are actually, in a specifically Jewish sense, the most deeply religious and spiritual books of the Bible. One does not have to be specifically Jewish to see or feel the religion and spirituality in the revelations of the prophetic writings or in the words of the Tehillim. They speak to all people, as evidenced by the fact that the Bible is still the world's bestseller and there are millions of non-Jews who regularly recite the Psalms. However, it is specifically and intrinsically Jewish to understand that G-d is revealed in the prosaic material, in the political, social and military events in the lives of ordinary men and women, kings and leaders that are described in the Nevim Rishonim. Here are described the ideology and religious thoughts in Judaism, while in Chronicles we have the purely historical. "To flee before the
Lord" (Yonah 1:1) [1] We have in the text of Yonah no information of who he was, his place of birth, his parentage or even when he prophesied. There is however, a reference to Yonah in Melachim Bet that puts him in the Northern Kingdom during the reign of Yer'avam [the Second] ben Yo'ash. Chazal saw Yonah as the son of the widow of Tzarfat who fed Eliyahu during the drought that he had brought on Israel. In return Eliyahu miraculously brought him back to life when the boy suddenly died; hence his name Yonah ben Amitai 'son of truth'. In the same way as the war against idolatry was the keynote of Neviim Rishonim and Chesed and Kingship that of Megillat Rut, Teshuva is of the essence of the book of Yonah. That is why it is the appropriate haftara for Mincha on Yom Kippur. "Arise and go to Nineveh the great city, since their evil has arisen before Me. And Yonah got up to flee to Tarshish" (Yonah 1:2-3). Ibn Ezra comments that Nineveh was a great city full of tzadikim but in Yonah's days they had slowly declined, so Hashem in His Mercy for these gentiles sent Yonah to bring them back in teshuva.Abarbanel maintains that they were extremely great in their evil and deserved destruction. However, Hashem wished to preserve them as a weapon to punish the Kingdom of Israel so He sent Yonah to cause them to repent. This dichotomy regarding Nineveh is reflected in the various commentaries that we will consider. However, either way, Yonah's act of fleeing is contrary to the reaction of Israel's prophets to their Divine missions as shown in all of the books of the Tanach. Although many of them were indeed more than reluctant to take on the prophetic role, this was only due to their consideration of their own suitability for the task. So Moshe protested "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh"? Jeremiah said, "I am only a youth", and Amos recalled, "I am only a dresser of sycamore fruit [not a prophet]". Therefore Yonah's fleeing alone, raises a number of important spiritual and conceptual issues. The Malbim comments that we may not imagine that Yonah was fleeing from G-d since it is impossible to escape from Him who exits everywhere and who is never ending. He notes that our text tells about fleeing from before Him - 'mi-lifnei' often used in the Tanach to denote an occasion of receiving revelation or performing a service - and not 'mipnei' - from Him, His Presence or Majesty. So that here it would simply mean to remove himself from the mission. Furthermore, he points out that this revelation contains no actual message only the instruction to go to Nineveh so there is no attempt to escape bearing a prophecy; something forbidden to a prophet. There is no validity in the idea that in those days, people believed in Hashem as a tribal god only existing in the land of Israel and therefore he could leave Eretz Yisrael in order to escape. Rather Yonah thought that if he would go to Chutz LaAretz, the mission would be given to somebody else. After all, in Chutz LaAretz there is no Kedusha, the essential prerequisite condition for prophecy. The ship bound for Tarshish seemed ideal for this purpose. Commonly associated with present day Spain, Tarshish was not even close to Eretz Yisrael and so cut off from its Kedusha, unlike adjacent countries such as Bavel that have a certain connection that could make prophesy possible. Yechezkel, for instance, received prophecy in Bavel. Yonah, unlike him, never had prophecy before and this mission would not be a continuation of prophetic status. However, Hashem has many emissaries and so the great storm came on to the ship and Yonah was forced to go to Nineveh, even against his will. Yonah fled because he believed that Divine Justice demanded that people should be punished for their sins; Mercy that accepted teshuva and forgave those sins, was an unfitting distortion. When Hashem heeds the teshuva of the people of Nineveh, "It was bad in his eyes and he prayed; "This is why I fled from my land to go to Tarshish. I knew that You are All Merciful and All Forgiving, Long Suffering and All Righteous. Take now my life, for death is better than my living" (Yonah). In this he was indeed a true disciple of Eliyahu, as we read in the Mechilta [although there is the alternative view there of Rabbi Yochanan that we will consider later]. "Moshe was zealous for the welfare of the son [Israel] as he said when Hashem wanted to wipe out the nation and continue through Moshe: "If You wish to do this rather wipe me out of Your book". Yermiyahu was zealous for the son and for Hashem the father as he said: "We have sinned but You have not forgiven". Eliyahu was zealous for Hashem the father but not the son when he said: "Your people broke down Your altar and killed Your prophets. I have been zealous for the Lord" (Melachim Alef). Eliyahu, despite this, went to Horev, to the cave where Moshe had been taught the 13 Attributes of Divine Mercy and Yonah quotes the same attributes in his anger. Moshe was rewarded when he descended with the Second Tablets from Sinai where he pleaded for Israel's forgiveness; "And the face of Moshe shone [with the Divine Presence]". In contrast Hashem said to Eliyahu at Sinai, "Go and anoint Elisha as a prophet instead of you and Yehu to eradicate the house of Achav". This is the 83rd installment in Dr. Tamari’s series on “Tanach and its messages for our times” [The
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