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The Story of Jonah is a Metaphor for a Much More Profound Yom Kippur Message, says Rabbi Hackenbroch

The book of Jonah is perhaps the focal point of the afternoon of Yom Kippur . The story is one we are all familiar with. The prophet Jonah is instructed by G-d to warn the people to turn back from their evil ways but his calls to them went unheeded and he attempts to flee from his Divine mission/higher calling . He finds himself on a boat that is caught up in a fierce storm that was raging unabated. On introspection he realises G-d is calling him from on High and he insists on being thrown into the sea.

The Yalkut Shimoni( 13 century Medrash) offers a deep and profound insight into this fascinating story in Jonahs life which can be applied to us all. The Vilna Gaon teaches that Jonah's journey symbolises the journey we all make. We are born with a subconscious realisation of the fact we have a mission . Often we seek to escape , because our mission is one that we are afraid to attempt.

In the text of the story, the places Jonah sought were Yaffo and Tarshish. Rebbetzen Heller, a contemporary lecturer, observes that the literal meaning of the names of these cities are beauty and wealth. We comfort ourselves externally by escaping from our inner knowledge of our mission in life through the pursuit of wealth and surrounding ourselves with beauty. Our bodies are compared to Jonah 's ship in the rough waves of the challenges that life throws at us, for example illness. The sailors on the ship symbolise the talents and capacities that serve us. As with Jonah, who is cast into the sea, we realise they too cannot save us from our futile desire to escape ourselves.

It is on Yom Kippur afternoon when we are weak from fasting and at our most vulnerable that the judgement and fate for us and our people comes to a close as it is precisely in such a fragile state that we are able to finally transcend our ego, surrendering our desire to control life and submitting at last to accepting our mission whatever it is.