{"id":77876,"date":"2020-07-22T17:54:38","date_gmt":"2020-07-22T14:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=77876"},"modified":"2020-07-22T17:54:38","modified_gmt":"2020-07-22T14:54:38","slug":"what-took-jonah-so-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/what-took-jonah-so-long\/","title":{"rendered":"What Took Jonah So Long?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"77876","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"530","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"And how did he last so long?\r\n\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After three days and nights, Jonah prayed to God from the belly of the great fish. Would we not have expected him to pray immediately upon being swallowed; what took him so long? Did he somehow imagine, until the third night, that he was going to get out on his own?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some of the exegetes we regularly consult address this question, albeit indirectly. Rashi focused on the discrepancy between 2:1, which refers to the fish\u2014twice\u2014in the masculine gender (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dag<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), and 2:2, which states that \u201cJonah prayed to God from the belly of the [female] fish (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dagah<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">).\u201d He wrote: \u201cIt was [initially] a male [fish] and it was roomy, so he paid no heed to prayer. God caused the fish to spew him out into the mouth of a female [fish], which was full of eggs, so he was confined, stimulating him to pray.\u201d Eliezer of Beaugency surmised: \u201cAfter remaining in the belly of the fish without dying or being changed [physically], he came to know that God did not want to kill him, but to display His power and strength in order to persuade him to undertake his mission.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ibn Ezra wrote: \u201cMan has no ability to live inside a fish for even an hour, let alone for [three days], other than by miracle.\u201d Radak explained: \u201cWhen Jonah was cast into the sea, [God] summoned a fish to swallow him lest he drown in the sea, and this was a miracle. In Pirkei d\u2019Rabbi Eliezer, R. Tarfon said that the fish had been assigned from the six days of creation to swallow Jonah.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This latter remark is reminiscent of the Mishnah in Avot (5:6), which reports that the ram that Abraham sacrificed in lieu of Isaac was created on the primordial Friday evening, implying that its role was not coincidental, but preordained.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Completing the assembly, Malbim touched on nearly all the exegetical bases, explaining:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">God summoned a great fish to that place to swallow Jonah whole, without breaking any bones. It is well known that it is impossible for a person to remain alive in the belly of a fish for even an hour, because a person needs to breathe fresh air. However, since [Jonah] was already sentenced to death and it was as though he was reborn, God gave him the nature of a fetus which can survive nine months in its mother\u2019s womb without breathing\u2014as Abrabanel wrote. This was a divine miracle, like that involving Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah in the fiery furnace, and such.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Image: Michael Segen-Cohen, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whale<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, acrylic on canvas, 1983. Israel Museum \u00a9 Liora Lior Segen-Cohen.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":77877,"id":77877,"title":"jonah2-file1983_\u05de\u05d9\u05db\u05d0\u05dc \u05e1\u05d2\u05df \u05db\u05d4\u05df \u05dc\u05d5\u05d9\u05ea\u05df","filename":"jonah2-file1983_\u05de\u05d9\u05db\u05d0\u05dc-\u05e1\u05d2\u05df-\u05db\u05d4\u05df-\u05dc\u05d5\u05d9\u05ea\u05df.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jonah2-file1983_\u05de\u05d9\u05db\u05d0\u05dc-\u05e1\u05d2\u05df-\u05db\u05d4\u05df-\u05dc\u05d5\u05d9\u05ea\u05df.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/what-took-jonah-so-long\/jonah2-file1983_%d7%9e%d7%99%d7%9b%d7%90%d7%9c-%d7%a1%d7%92%d7%9f-%d7%9b%d7%94%d7%9f-%d7%9c%d7%95%d7%99%d7%aa%d7%9f\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jonah2-file1983_%d7%9e%d7%99%d7%9b%d7%90%d7%9c-%d7%a1%d7%92%d7%9f-%d7%9b%d7%94%d7%9f-%d7%9c%d7%95%d7%99%d7%aa%d7%9f","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":77876,"date":"2020-07-22 14:54:12","modified":"2020-07-22 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