Jonah’s unfinished story echoes louder after October 7

Every past year as we read the story of Jonah on Yom Kippur, my response has been: Really?

Why on earth is this story here and now? Not the prophet on the mountain top. Not Moses with the tablets. Not Elijah in a fiery chariot.

Instead, on the most important day of the Jewish year, we get Jonah. Jonah – who is not even a particularly enthusiastic prophet. Flawed, scared, defiant, avoidant and resentful.

But maybe that’s the point. Maybe that’s why he is perfect to read as we approach the end of Yom Kippur. He is a figure not sure what to do in a world that doesn’t make moral clarity easy.

Possibly he is the most human of the prophets because he struggles with change.

When Jonah is called to Nineveh, he runs - not because he’s lazy or rebellious, but because he is afraid. Afraid that the people he’s been taught to despise might actually be redeemable. Afraid that compassion might cost him his certainty, his identity, his tribe.

Jonah’s call is that inner nudge we all feel when we see suffering and remain silent, when we know we should speak out but fear the consequences. It’s about wrestling with moral responsibility. Jonah flees from what he knows he should do.

Nineveh isn’t just some ancient city. It’s any place where we have been taught to fear, dismiss and avoid. For some today Nineveh might look like Gaza. It may be the left or the right of politics. It may be the person who posts things we don’t agree with.