Dear Friends,
We invite you to read Cantor Kent’s blog this week. Wishing you all a happy Gmar Chatima Tova for a wonderful year in spirit with your lovely families.
Jonah: Running Away from Ourselves
(On Yom Kippur, we read the Book of Jonah, except this year, due to the shortened nature of our online Zoom services, we will omit the telling of this prophetic story.)
I loved living in Los Angeles as Los Angeles is one of the most athletic cities in the world. We have the weather and geography that allows us to literally flex our muscles almost every day of the year.
Go surfing in the morning- go mountain biking in the afternoon.
Go skiing in the morning- go sailing in the evening.
Perhaps one of the biggest sports in Los Angeles is running. You see runners everywhere. On main streets. On the boardwalk at the beach. On the trails in the Santa Monica Mountains. At my former congregation, Temple Isaiah, we had lots of runners from casual runners to hard core marathon racers. And even if you're not a runner- I want you to meet one of the most famous runners in the entire Bible: Jonah, the central figure in the prophetic book we read on Yom Kippur afternoon.
Jonah is the story of a man running. Jonah is commanded by God to tell the people of Nineveh that they will face destruction- but what does Jonah do? He runs away. Instead of going toward Nineveh, Jonah boards a ship in the port city of Jaffa that is going toward Tarshish- far away from the destination God intends for him. Jonah doesn’t just run away- he runs far away- in the other direction. So eager is Jonah to run away from God and away from his call to prophecy, that, according to one Biblical commentator, he even pays the fares for all the other passengers on the ship. Jonah was so determined to run away, to sail away, that he charters the entire boat.
Once on board the ship, Jonah thinks he has successfully run away from his responsibility to warn the people of Nineveh of approaching destruction. A storm rages and the sailors aboard believe that one of them is causing their misfortune. They cast lots-sort of like rolling dice- and it turns out that Jonah is the cause of the storm. They ask Jonah “Who are you? Why are you here? Who sent you?”
And Jonah replies: “I am a Hebrew. I was sent by God who made heaven and earth. “
Even in a moment of dire need, Jonah is still running- he is running away from who he is, and he never tells the other sailors his name.
So he is tossed into the water in the hopes that with him off the ship, the storm will subside.
The whale part of the story is easy. Jonah cannot run too much here: there are no treadmills in the belly of whales-. However after three days in the whale, Jonah is spit out and then-only then-does he travel to Nineveh.
When he arrives, he warns the king of Nineveh and all the inhabitants and even the animals to put on sack cloth and fast in order to repent. But Jonah does not want to see the results, he does not hang around- he is off running into the desert. Jonah is like the “Forrest Gump” of the Bible.
Again and again Jonah runs from his responsibility.
He runs from God.
He runs from Nineveh.
Ultimately Jonah is running away from himself.
When we join together on Yom Kippur, we are also runners. Like Jonah we are running away: we run from responsibility; we run from relationships; we run from family; we run away from community; we run away from the holy and sanctified.
Like Jonah we are often running away from ourselves.
However we aren’t able to run away from ourselves simply by boarding a ship or heading into the desert.
Yom Kippur reminds us that instead of running away from ourselves, we must take the time to confront ourselves, to effect a change within ourselves.
Yom Kippur reminds us that what we need is not a change of scenery, but a change of soul.
That’s what this day is all about- it’s about running toward ourselves, beginning the process of change.
So this year, on Yom Kippur afternoon, let us commit that this be the year we try to end our running away. Maybe this will be the year when we end that marathon of running from ourselves, from God, from one another.
Maybe this year is the year that we begin to run towards something instead.
Maybe this Yom Kippur we start running towards creating a world that is filled with justice.
May we this Yom Kippur start running toward a world that is filled with promise.
May we this Yom Kippur start running toward a life of sanctity.
May we, this Yom Kippur, change direction-and return to ourselves and our God.
When I was getting ready to race my first marathon, I was told: The most difficult part of running the race is not the race itself. No, it’s making the decision to run that race.
It’s time to make the decision to enter the race:
Lace up your shoes.
We’ve been called to the starting line…the clock is already ticking.
Shabbat Shalom
Cantor Evan Kent