{"id":78067,"date":"2020-07-26T14:17:29","date_gmt":"2020-07-26T11:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=78067"},"modified":"2020-07-26T14:17:29","modified_gmt":"2020-07-26T11:17:29","slug":"jonah-and-his-sukkah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/jonah-and-his-sukkah\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonah And His Sukkah"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/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":"78067","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":72765,"related_cahpter":"532","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Far from home, abandoned by God, shorn of divine grace\r\n\r\n","content":"

One detail of the Jonah story receives scant attention: the \u201csukkah\u201d (booth) which he builds before the appearance of the \u201c<\/span>kikayon<\/span><\/em>\u201d (the gourd tree).<\/span><\/p>\n

The sukkah is mentioned only once in the text, in passing as it were, before being superseded by the <\/span>kikayon<\/span><\/em>, the tree which is intended to convey the moral lesson of the book.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some questions though emerge:<\/span><\/p>\n

Why is the sukkah mentioned at all?<\/span><\/p>\n

Why does Jonah rejoice over the <\/span>kikayon<\/em> <\/span>when he already had shade from the sukkah?<\/span><\/p>\n

What happens to the sukkah?<\/span><\/p>\n

If the sukkah was destroyed by the same \u201cfierce east wind\u201d that discomforted Jonah, as some commentators maintain, then why does he mourn only for the <\/span>kikayon<\/span><\/em>, for which he did not \u201ctoil\u201d, and not for the sukkah, for which he did toil?<\/span><\/p>\n

The thought occurs that Jonah instantiates\u2014in reverse– the famous Talmudic dispute over the meaning of the verse \u201c\u2026for I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt\u201d (Leviticus 23:43). This verse explains why Jews celebrate the holiday of Tabernacles. Rabbi Akiva says that \u201cbooths\u201d in this verse refers to \u201c<\/span>sukkot mamash<\/span><\/em>\u201d (literal sukkot). Rabbi Eliezer says that it refers to \u201c<\/span>ananei hakovod<\/span><\/em>\u201d (the clouds of glory that hovered over the Jews in the desert). Rabbi Akiva\u2019s interpretation emphasizes the role of man in faithfully following God under adverse conditions. Rabbi Eliezer\u2019s interpretation emphasizes the role of God in providing divine shelter for the Jews during their wanderings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jonah\u2014briefly\u2014enjoys both: the man-made sukkah and the divinely appointed <\/span>kikayon<\/span><\/em>, symbol of God\u2019s grace.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the arrangement is not a stable one. God withdraws the <\/span>kikayon<\/em> <\/span>overnight. Apparently, God\u2019s grace is not an infinite resource. It cannot be extended to Israel and to Israel\u2019s enemy simultaneously. And since it had already been extended to Nineveh\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

The children of Israel in the desert were on the way to Israel, the promised land. Jonah is coming <\/span>from<\/span><\/em> Israel, the land he fled. He cannot go home again because his countrymen will hate him for being the instrument of Nineveh\u2019s salvation. He is as sunk in exile as he was in the belly of the whale.<\/span><\/p>\n

What happens to Jonah after the events related in this book?<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding Jonah personally, there is no reason to suppose that God does not accede to his request to die. Regarding the sukkah, Jonah does what Jews in the diaspora have always done when their sukkah gets knocked down: he puts it up again. But this time there is no <\/span>kikayon<\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

So Jonah spends his remaining days in his lonely sukkah: far from home, used and abandoned by God, shorn of divine grace, watching from afar as the city he saved from destruction begins to flourish into the capital of the mighty Assyrian empire which will devastate his homeland.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is no more pathetic image in all of scripture.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":78068,"id":78068,"title":"jon4-kikayon","filename":"jon4-kikayon.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/jonah-and-his-sukkah\/jon4-kikayon\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jon4-kikayon","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":78067,"date":"2020-07-26 11:16:17","modified":"2020-07-26 11:17:21","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":800,"height":588,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon-300x221.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":221,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon-768x564.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":564,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":588,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":588,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":588,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":588,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon-571x420.jpg","home_baner-width":571,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Jonah And His Sukkah","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Far from home, abandoned by God, shorn of divine grace","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":78068,"id":78068,"title":"jon4-kikayon","filename":"jon4-kikayon.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/jonah-and-his-sukkah\/jon4-kikayon\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jon4-kikayon","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":78067,"date":"2020-07-26 11:16:17","modified":"2020-07-26 11:17:21","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":800,"height":588,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon-300x221.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":221,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon-768x564.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":564,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":588,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":588,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":588,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":588,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-kikayon-571x420.jpg","home_baner-width":571,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78067"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78069,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78067\/revisions\/78069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}