Daily Prophets
Day 208
“These are the words God spoke to Jonah, son of Amittai: Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city and speak to them because their evil has risen up before me. Jonah, got up and fled to Tarshish away from God and went to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fail and went aboard to sail with others to Tarshish, away from serving God.”(Jonah1:1-3)
As Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur draw near, I want to take an in-depth look at the book of Jonah. This opening gets more and more incredible to me as the years go by. We read this every year on Yom Kippur afternoon and each year it is more and more trembling and troubling.
God speaks to Jonah, as God does with other prophets and with the Children of Israel in the Bible, and yet we are not shocked, amazed, trembling, in radical amazement over these words. I believe the reason we are not is because we don’t believe it! We see it as a literary device, a control mechanism, etc. Yet, each year, we hear God’s call and God speaking to us clearer and more statically. The more set in our ways we become, the more static there is when God speaks, the more power we seek, the more static there is when God speaks. The more open we are to learn, the clearer is God’s call, the more transparent and truthful we are, the clearer are God’s words and message to/for us. Jonah is blessed with the ability to hear God’s call. Jonah, like all prophets, is blessed to know exactly what service God is asking from him. Yet, unlike the other prophets, Jonah says NO to God’s call and NO to serving God.
How many Jonah’s are in the world today? Unfortunately there are more Jonah’s than the other prophets. There are more Jonahs in power, there are more Jonah’s serving as clergy, politicians, business leaders, parents and children than are good for a healthy society. Jonah is the prophet that would be upset that vaccines were created to end polio, smallpox, measles, shingles, covid, etc. Jonah is the prophet that would be upset when democracy works because it means he can’t be the king/decider of who lives, dies, prospers, is free and is enslaved. Jonah is the prophet who preaches peace and takes advantage of everyone he can as he lies his way to ‘the top’ and wins through bullying and threatening.
God is telling Jonah that everyone can repent, God is telling us that before any judgement is to be handed out, the people must know what they are doing and the impact their actions have. God is telling us and Jonah, be transparent, stop looking for the advantage, bring people together and to God. Yet, like Jonah, we run away. We try to go as far away from this call of God as we can, until of course, Yom Kippur when we want to be forgiven by God without naming the errors we have made individually, without going to the people we have harmed and asking for their forgiveness, without owning our part in every negative interaction, as well as only taking credit for our part in every positive interaction. Like Jonah we believe we can repudiate God with reckless abandon and never experience consequences from our behaviors.
Jonah is going as far away from God as possible, to Tarshish, yet he is unable to flee from God as God infuses the entire world. God is everywhere, God is the oxygen that keeps everything alive, God is the gravity that keeps us rooted on earth, God is the creative force of the universe and Jonah is using that force to create chaos and run away from his responsibility. Isn’t it sad that we have learned so little from Jonah, as well as the rest of the prophets over these millennia? We are still running from God, we are still running from forgiveness and repentance. We are continuing to defy God while proclaiming God’s greatness. We are continuing to use God to control another(s) for our benefit. We all know religious leaders who continue to hide behind a mask of piety and meditation, guile and denial, for their own power, prestige and money. We see politicians who proclaim to be guided by “religious values’ who are helping people die with their inactions and their anti-truth messages.
In recovery, we ran as far away from God as possible. We heard only the calls of our minds which in the program of AA is called ‘K-f*%$#k radio. We are so attuned to hearing God’s voice and call in our recovery that when we can’t, when it is static, we run to a meeting, to a sponsor, to a spiritual guide to help us get tuned in again and hear God clearly. In recovery, we know we need to serve God and all of God’s creations, especially our fellow human beings. We continue to take our own inventory, continue to make our amends and continue to forgive another. We leave our resentments at the door and live freer each and every day.
I have been Jonah. I live today as the anti-Jonah to the best of my ability. I am constantly looking to hear and be of service to and for God. I am aware of my flaws and the times I haven’t served God and/or another(s) human and I am aware of the times I have served God and another(s) human being. I am saddened by the ways people harm me, rather than mad which is a growth I have mastered this year. I have my mission from God and I need to tune out the static from another(s) and from my false ego to be able to hear God’s call better and clearer. I am grateful for my guides who continue to show me the way. God Bless and Stay Safe, Rabbi Mark