{"id":78075,"date":"2020-07-26T14:43:27","date_gmt":"2020-07-26T11:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=78075"},"modified":"2020-07-26T14:43:27","modified_gmt":"2020-07-26T11:43:27","slug":"whats-the-main-thing-that-jonah-lacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/whats-the-main-thing-that-jonah-lacks\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s The Main Thing That Jonah Lacks?"},"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":"78075","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36277,"related_cahpter":"532","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"One loves that for which one labors and one labors for that which one loves","content":"

The end of the Book of Jonah is famously enigmatic. Its last words are God\u2019s question:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou cared about the plant, which you did not work for and which you did not grow, which appeared overnight and perished overnight. And should I not care about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and many beasts as well?\u201d (Jonah 4:10-11)<\/span><\/p>\n

How does Jonah respond to God\u2019s question, and how should we?<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the deepest recent readings of Jonah appears in \u201cThe Art of Loving,\u201d by the great Frankfurt school psychoanalyst and philosopher, Erich Fromm, who had a traditional yeshiva education. When Fromm\u2019s book appeared in 1957, one of the first reviews, by bible scholar Jakob Petuchowski called it \u201ca modern midrash.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For Fromm, to love is to <\/span>give<\/span><\/em> what is most precious and alive in oneself to another. All love, according to Fromm, entails care, responsibility, respect and knowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jonah\u2019s tragedy is that he cannot love. (Fromm conjectures that one whose faith in his own human powers is lacking and is thus afraid to give of himself, will resist loving.) Jonah flees from God when called on to give his redemptive message to the people of Nineveh. The belly of the whale symbolizes \u201cthe state of isolation and imprisonment that his lack of love and solidarity has brought on him.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is God\u2019s boundless love that most chagrins Jonah. He runs from his mission because he is afraid that Nineveh will repent and God will forgive them. When Jonah\u2019s worst fear comes true, he complains to God, \u201cFor I know that you are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in kindness.\u201d These divine qualities are just what Jonah cannot bear, because they reproach Jonah\u2019s own inability to give himself in love.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Fromm\u2019s reading, God\u2019s concluding words are a primer on how to love. Invoking \u201cthe plant, which you did not work for and which you did not grow,\u201d God teaches Jonah, \u201cthat the essence of love is to labor for something, and to make something grow; that love and labor are inseparable. One loves that for which one labors and one labors for that which one loves.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The close of the book is an exhortation to Jonah and to us, to have faith in our inner powers and to give of what is most alive in ourselves for the life and growth of others.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":78076,"id":78076,"title":"jon4-love2","filename":"jon4-love2.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon4-love2.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/whats-the-main-thing-that-jonah-lacks\/jon4-love2\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jon4-love2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":78075,"date":"2020-07-26 11:43:16","modified":"2020-07-26 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