You cant hide from G-d, Yonah felt running away can hide from G-d, where is Ninveh and where is Tarshish? Tarshish is as far west as you can get, bninveh is as far east - he goes as far away in the oppositie direction - G-d is everywhere - there is no escape.

There is a theme in Yonahs life - he seems like to suffer from depression and disaster goes around him.

Look at pasuk 5, Sailors were frieghtened, each one cried out to his G-d, and threw all of the utensils into the sea to try and lighten the ship, they are engaged in paryer and action to try and save themselves - and the other people - and Yonah goes down the ship and has a sleep - doesnt want to face upto everything - he knows it is upto him - its not a normal storm - pasuk 4 - G-d made this storm - it was unnatural - after a while they begin to suspect it may have somthing to do with Yonah, the captain approaches Yonah and having cast lots they realize he is responsible - pasuk 8- what are you doing for work? and what nation are you? what do you do? whats the story with you? they cast lots and they suspected Yonah, one of the most famous answers in the whole tanackh, i am an 'IVRI' a Jew! I fear the lord G-d of heavens - he made the sea and the dry land - he made it and i fear that G-d, and the men were very friegthened, what have you done to us? because the men knew he had fled from G-d because he had told them, they said what should we do to you? the sea would be quieted? and the sea could break the boat and we will die,,, a storm was increasing in intensity - he said to them - pick me up and throw me into the sea - that will quieten the sea for you- since i know the reason this storm is starting with you is because of me! The 'Men' row really hard to try to get the ship back to dry land, they couldnt , since the storm was growing in intensity - and they called out to G-d and said - G-d let us not be destroyed - let us not perish because of the soul of this one man - dont make us responsible for shedding innocent blood - you are G-d and you do as you see fit - we have done everything possible - we ra eforced into this situation - but G-d save him - and they picked up Yonah and they threw him into the sea and immediatly the sea ceased from its anger and the men were exceedingly freightened - they made sacrifices to G-d and they made vows.

There were 2 key chages on the part of the text - did you notice they started the chapter as sailors and finished it as men - at verse 5 - they use the word 'malachim' (Salters) - salty people - sailors - but as soon as they start to interact with Yonah - they become Men' - from verse 10 onwards they are now all the way through to 'Men' there interactionw ith Yonah transforms them from sailors to men - also notice they are transformed from idolatars into monotheists - where they begin their attempt to abate the storm by calling out to their G-ds verse 5 again - each man called out to his G-d, and then when Yonah said I worship the one G-d, the G-d that made the sea in the dry land - and then the men were very friengtened - they knew he was riunning away from G-d, Chazal say - the sailors converted - the process and experiance converted them from a politheistic world to a recognition of Hashem - if we turn to second page - we see a midrash of pirkei D'rabbi eliezer - he is the midrash - pirkei drabbi eliezer Gadol is tanna - but not likely it was compiled as early as the taanaic period - it is an important authoratitive midrash , which fills in a lot of spaces in the biblical stories based on careful readfing of the pasukim - lots of the very familiar of the midrashic ecretion of bereishit and shemot and other stories of the tanach - it says 'a great storm wind came upon them in the sea to the right and to the left, all of the other ships were going backwords and forwards happily in a tranquil state on the sea, but the boat into which Yonah went - was in great distress and looked like it was going to break up. it is clear from the verses , the storm is on 'them,' it is evident they are near the shore - they can se it in the distant - a supernatural force is dragging them back. Importasnt when learning a midrash like this that you recognise it is not made up - it eveolves from a careful reading of the text - R Chanina said , there were representitives of the 70 nation on board the ship - each one had his G-d in hand, they were saying the G-d that will answer us and save us from this terrible disaster he must be the true G-d and each stood and called up and cried out in the name of his G-d, nothing happened - Yonah becuase of the distress of his soul that he couldnt face the reality - he goes down into the shiop and sleep, the captain of the ship came and said to him -we are standing on a prosepis between death and life - and you are sleeping? get up, what are you doing? that is the midrash!

the ship includes people of all nations - it may not eb taken literally - but it has people of all nations - these places on the meditarranian were the crossroads of ancient societies - this storm is understood to have been a crossroads moment - that is the case. They are transformed from the contact of Yonah they became monotheists - they call oiut to G-d, by the end they are making sacrifices.

There is a modern book called cerversive sequelks of the bible - the sailors development is both religious and moral is extraordinary - at first where the stormy sea threatens their lives they pray to their G-ds and head overboard all excess weights - drawing lots to hope to find the person responsible for the re perrel, they would presumably cast off the offender - if there was a baggage or person endagering the ship they would have threw it off - the lots implicate Yonah - they ask him a string of questions including, what must we do to you? to make the sea calm around us? Yonah instructsto be casted into the sea - instead the sailors frantically tried to row back to shore =- risking their own lives in order to spare his - they were convinced by theis state that he was responsible but they also recognise that if they throw him overboard they will be saved - but trhey arent ready to give up on him yet despite knowing their lives are in danger they row frantically but it doesnt work - in verse 18 it says -vayachtaroo' - translates as rowed vigrously - what does it mean? it comes from machteret - a tunneller- burgeler - it emans to dig - the boat didnt go anywhere - they are frantic to get tot he shore without having to throw Yonah in the sea. what is very powerful but werent successful, only when all hope is lost do they only finally throw him into the sea in order to save themslevs and even then the sailors continue to hold out hope for the survival of their fellow man - who has imperelled them - do not hold us guilty of killing an innocent person G-d! weve been forced into this situation - there is loads of us - but G-d look after him - they are still hopeful a miracle would happen - he was saved eventually - despite Yonah admitted he wasnt innconcent they still tried to spare his life - this exceptional ability to consider charitable alternatives to what their own eyes and ears percieve - is a defining feature of the sailors and i might say a defining of their moral growth! they start off as a rabble of idolotors and through their contact of Yona they become a unified group of monotheists that are willing to do anything for any alternative to save someone who they know and admitted he was guilty - the midrashic source offers an intriging angel on the sailors transformation to anashim, the hebrew word for men or inclusivly people, in this view the boat occupants are all people, and here she is drawing on the midrash we saw on the previous page, there were the boat was a microcosm of humanity, whenever the midrash uses the image of the 70 languages, what does it mean? the 70 nations, the whole of humanity, we know there was a division of 70 leangues and midyanot after flood and bavekl in Noach, there are the concept of the 70 primary memebrers of the jewish people - the relationship between  the two which is this weeks parshah, start of parshat haazinu -

whever the midrash says that it means the whole of humanity - it emans a representation or a microcrism of humanity - in this view the baots occupants are all people - they are a symbolic microcrosm of humanity at large - read this way the moral excellence exhibited by the sailors interestingly in ciontratst to Yonah who isnt the most successful of our prophets, hints for the universal potential of self reightous behaviour, furthermore in an ironic twist the world is now more moral and compassionate on the prophet - this story of the sailors could be taken in isolation - the story is the concept that all humanity have the potential for ultraism - all peoples are capable of doing somthing good even potentially if it is not in their own potential interests. it teaches the notion of universal hope , the concept that every human is capable of moal excellence and thats a powerful message and that is often missed - since we focus on what yonah is upto - g-d is teaching a lesson but story back to Yonah again - we dont need 16 verses -at beginning - it could have been much shorter - this start of the story is critical to understanding the function of sefer Yonah of the transformation of them from Sailors to men and the transformation from idolotors to monetheists - and how they exhibit and level the concept of how every human being has the potential to be moral and great, quite interistingly in contrast to Jonah who spends most the whole book depressed and shirking responsibilities- he potentially has the ability to overcome this Challenge (Yonah ) but is self negating and petulent behaviour appears at the end of the book.

In the Vilna Gaons commentrybased on the zohar  he comments on how Yona went down to the ship he represents the human soul - the story can be understood as a symbol that Yona is the human soul and the soul comes down to this world to exhistt in human biody and the tension that exists between the tension of the soul and the demands of the body characterise in one sentance the human condition - it is the uneasy relationship and journey that is shared between 2 largly incompatible entities that i accept to coexhist in harmony the physical which does the ohysical drives and needs and the spiritual which is in terms to elevate and they are forged together,

then gives the midrash in Vayikra rabba about the blind man and the cripple - it is a mashal of relationship between the body and the soul - how they can act together and create things - the body and the soul have to act together - yona is an image in the zaharic reading - the late kabbalistic reading which the soul comes down from the body and has to exhist - to live in the body of the human being - why is it called yona? because when it partnerds with the body it has cheated in this world of its real destiny - its a strange reading - when a person travels or lives in this world - it is like a ship travelling on the Yom Haraba - the yam hagadol - the mediterrainian - the journey is like a ship setting out on its journey - all the time the game is about to be over - and the person sins in this world - and believes he can flee from his master and then when that happens G-d brings the great storm wind - the travials of human life - which is the theme of sefer yona - we are considering on yom kippur [particularly - vilna gaon bases the sefer yona on this passage in the zohar- in the hakdamo - he says that this prophetcs book is a hint of the condition of this human soul as the zohar says - the soul is sent down to the world to fix it - to repairt thr world in tikan haolam it is not enough it didnt repair it but spoiled itself and after it gets a second chance it comes back again and is the doctrine of self migartion

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Which the gaon gets from the kabbalisitic sources - the point is it corrupts itself - once put together - the expert untranslated - in the image the ship is the body, becuase this world is like the sea - its a good image sometimes its calm sometimes it is stormy - sometimes there are waves, sometimes the conditions vary, but the next world in gan eden is like dry land, firm and reliable - consistent - whenever you go on sea journey, you are going there as a means to an end - you have to go ona  ship, the goal is to bring merchandise to dry land, to transport it from one port to another, and similarly this world is the sea, and the troubles of this world are the waves, and the body is like the boat, through which the soul comes down to the sea, that is the means through which the soul can traverse the sea of the impermanent physical world - you need to use olam haze to get to olam haba. this is the image. The sould and body have an uneasy relationship but it is only temporary.the sea journey is a means to an end - you can only get from one place to another crossing the sea with the soul stirring the ship - the soul is the captain and the ship is the body. An entirety of the work is on this.

The purpose of Yonah is we can see the transformation that every human being can gain and second reason is the kabbalistic view of the book is to see it as a journey.