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Book of Jonah

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Rafi Addlestone

Oct 1, 2026, 5:50 PM

What Jonah knew that the climate movement doesn’t

Warnings only work when the fix is cheap, or the moral argument has been won. It's an odd thing to read on the holiest day of the year. Yom Kippur afternoon, the flattest hour, everyone tired and hungry and the...

Sep 29, 2026, 12:56 PM

Sukkot: When Jonah Was Right, You Need Shade

Every year, about four days after we finish beating ourselves up on Yom Kippur, Hashem looks down and says, essentially, now go sit outside in a hut for a week. And not a real hut. A temporary one, with a roof...

Sep 21, 2026, 6:21 PM

The graphic novel about Jonah and the fish

The Koren Tanakh Graphic Novel: Yona (Jonah in English) is more than a retelling of Jonah. Koren presents it as the full biblical text in graphic form, with words by David Sacks, four artists, and one colorist. It can...

Sep 18, 2026, 2:31 PM

Rereading Jonah after NAZA

'Jonah Cast Forth by the Whale,' by Gustave Doré, 1874. (National Library of Poland, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons)

Abraham is my hero for his complex faith, but Jonah's intense loyalty to the Jewish people spotlights the fallacy of extending compassion to just everyone

Yitzchak Besser

Sep 18, 2026, 1:26 AM

That Which Separates Us from Animals and Angels: On Yonah and Yom Kippur

The Book of Jonah is a mainstay of the Yom Kippur liturgy. Years ago, in a class on the topic, Rabbi Yisrael Motzen of Baltimore’s Ner Tamid Synagogue once argued that Jonah does not change or develop in the...

Sep 28, 2025, 6:38 AM

Jonah and Hallel: Similar Songs, Distinct Messages

Jonah after rescue at sea. Image courtesy of ChatGPT.

While reading Hallel (Psalms 113-118) recently, I was struck by how many of its phrases seemed to echo the story of the sea in the book of Jonah (chapters 1–2). At first glance, this might not be surprising. Hallel...

Sep 25, 2025, 1:39 PM

Every year anew

(Photo by author)

The cycle of holidays, with their rituals and readings, remind us, as we confront our foibles again, that we truly have the tools to build a better world

Shuly Rubin Schwartz

Sep 17, 2025, 11:52 PM

No shade for Jonah: Engaging the other in challenging times

Jonah teaches that it is precisely in our most difficult moments that God invites us to show concern for those outside our circle

Nov 30, 2024, 9:54 AM

Lessons of a 100–year-old postcard from an imaginary land

From the Herzl and Zionism Collection of David Matlow, Toronto (www.herzlcollection.com). Photograph by David Matlow and used with his permission.

Where in the world is West Refaim and why did it have its own stamp? Riddles from back when the Jewish imagination went postal

Oct 15, 2024, 12:09 AM

Jonah – A Man of His Time… And Ours

I read a synopsis of the meaning of Yom Kippur and it really spoke to me. It said, “On Yom Kippur, when we stare our wrongdoings in the face, guilt and shame can overwhelm and push us into an emotional...

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