Segue from Yom Kippur to Sukkot through the Lens of Yonah
The story of Yonah was always a bit of a conundrum for me. I never understood what was so grandiose about it, or so earth shattering about it that it was given prime real estate on Yom Kippur. Leading up to Mincha, and right before Ne'ila, year in and year out, we read the story – one that sounds more like a parable, or an Aesopian tale, about a man being swallowed by a fish. Truth be told, I always thought there was something nice about it on a sheerly utilitarian level; the fast is at its height, my stomach is rumbling – and here we get to kill a good half an hour, with little intense concentration, or kavanah that you were supposed to muster for the other segments of the Yom Kippur davening. Unfortunately, until this past year, that had been my take on the Book of Jonah (we call it Yonah in Hebrew), somewhat puerile and seemingly failing to grasp the import of the momentous idea portrayed by this pithy yet powerful work. On a lark, leading up to Yom Kippur, I heard ...