Jonah, the whale, and our lives.

On Yom Kippur the holiest day of the year we read in the afternoon, the entire book of Jonah.

Yom Kippur is a day of atonement because it is the holiest day of the year. Holiness equals G-dliness, and on this day, in our minds and with our bodies we are closest to G-d Himself. We are not involved in our mundane bodily pursuits or needs, we are completely immersed in prayer. On a day spent in this way, G-d assures us of forgiveness.

The story of Jonah and the whale teaches us the power of repentance for all mankind anytime of the year. Especially on this day when G-d tells us in the Bible, He is closest to all those who call Him. This day has tremendous significance and opportunity.

The story of Jonah teaches us there is nowhere to run or hide from G-d, since G-d fills the entire world. Jonah prayed from the depth of the big fish’s stomach, from deep down in his own gut, and G-d always answers the prayers of  someone who  prays and connects with G-d from that spot.

Joy and happiness is a vessel for G-dliness. When a person is filled with gratitude in their lives and appreciates the special unique mission  they were granted to fulfill every moment of their existence, this elevates a person to a very great and deep level of consciousness.

Jonah served G-d with great joy and became a prophet of G-d. G-d communicated to Jonah that he go to the city of Nineveh and tell them that if they do not change their ways G-d would destroy them.

Jonah was afraid, that if Nineveh repented, it would look bad for the people in Israel, so he decided to leave Israel thinking G-d would not communicate with him outside of Israel. However, while Jonah was on the boat, a great storm threatened to capsize the boat and Jonah told the captain to throw him into the water and the storm would stop.

So it was, and Jonah ended up in the stomach of a great fish. Jonah realized there was nowhere to escape and prayed to G-d to give him another chance. Jonah announced to the people in Nineveh they had forty days to repent, and they all turned their lives around. Although they did slip back into their bad behavior later on, at this time they were sincere and so they were forgiven.

In the book of mysticism it helps us understand the deeper messages of the bible and explains this story on a much deeper level.

In Hebrew the word Jonah means a dove, and this is a symbol for the spark of G-d within each person.  The boat is the body in which the soul is enclothed.  Many times this boat and its desires will carry the soul  away from fulfilling its ultimate purpose, until it hits a catastrophic storm that threatens the entire physical existence of the person.  The name Nineveh, where the soul is instructed originally to reach, means, to make beautiful. This is the mission of every soul to take a dark and sometimes deceiving and ugly world and transform it to a beautiful place where G-d would be comfortable to dwell.

The mission of every person is to consciously work against the flow as difficult as this may be, and with every small success against the current of materialism and flow downwards, success has been accomplished.

Although we may fail every so often in our mission,  difficulties help us reconsider the route our boat is taking.  The story of Jonah reminds us we can always pray for another chance and the door of repentance is never closed.