12
votes
Accepted
Was Yonah able to visit the Beis HaMikdash? What about other prophets of his time?
Your question assumes that there were guards blocking anyone from crossing from Judah to Israel. The background of the assumption is probably the following two sources:
Sanhedrin 102a, according to ...
- 23.9k
10
votes
Could Yonah's "whale" have been a whale?
The only Rishon I saw who identifies the Dag Gadol in his commentary is [R Eliezer of Beaugency to Yonah 2:1][1], and he identifies it as a "בַלְיינְא וכיוצא בו", which is a baleine (etc.) in French (...
- 20.8k
7
votes
Accepted
Does anyone comment on why Yonah needed the kikayon when he already had shade from his sukkah?
Radak says:
ואף על פי שעשה לו סוכה לצל, אולי יבשו עצי הסוכה, כי ישב שם עד מלאות לו ארבעים יום.
And Mezudat David:
כי צל הסוכה הוא דבר שאינו מתמיד, כי הולך ומתייבש מחום השמש; ולא כן הקיקיון, היונק ...
- 603
5
votes
Accepted
Does Jewish tradition hold the book of Jonah to be depicting historical events?
Mikra (the TaNaCh), as opposed to Aggadaic Medrashim and Talmudic passages, are not allegories. Even when the verse is hinting a lesson, we learn that אין מקרא יוצא מידי פשוטו, the verse does not ...
- 4,934
5
votes
Accepted
Should animals not be fed on Yom Kippur?
Does this mean that we, literally, should not feed animals (including Livestock and Pets, even Service Animals) on Yom Kippur or are animals not considered people (and are exempt from fasting) despite ...
- 73.6k
4
votes
What kind of 'bottoms of mountains' are these in Jonah 2:7?
Yonah 2:7
To the bottom of the mountains I descended, the earth-its bars are
closed on me forever; but You brought up my life from Gehinnom, O
Lord, my God.
Rashi says
To the bottoms of the ...
- 42.7k
4
votes
Maftir Yonah riches?
The minhag definitely seems to have some roots in the Lubavitcher chassidus.
HoRav Gavriel Zinner shlita in his Nitei Gavriel on Yom Kippur 62:16 writes as follows:
העולה לתורה שלישי מפטיר בספר יונה ...
- 25.4k
3
votes
Why is Jonah so displeased?
Yonah didn't want to tell Nineveh to do teshuva, because he knew that if they would do teshuva (as they ended up doing), and then if the Jews don't do teshuva (and they had multiple prophets), they ...
- 1,539
3
votes
Why did Yonah not command circumcision on the people of Ninevah, especially in the light of the message of Teshuvah?
The people of Ninveh weren't Jewish. They weren't obligated in circumcision, and thus circumcision wouldn't do anything for them, spiritually. Circumcision is not a component of repentance. (Well, ...
- 129k
3
votes
Accepted
How does prolonged (multiday) fasting work?
I don't see (in my Lublin-style Mikraos G'dolos) any commentary note how many days the Nineveh folks fasted. I'd have to assume, absent other knowledge, that they fasted until the end of the day the ...
- 73.6k
3
votes
How does prolonged (multiday) fasting work?
According to the Maharal in Ohr Chadash (on Megillas Esther) it means that you fast at the end of the first day, the whole 24 hours of the second day and a part of the third.
- 4,934
2
votes
Why did those on the ship ignore what Yona told them?
They did not disregard Yonah's suggestion, they were trying to work out the best course of action. What could be perceived as them ignoring Yonah is actually them hesitating as they grappled with an ...
- 25.4k
2
votes
Why do we read Yona on Yom Kippur?
R' Samson Raphael Hirsch says, in his extended commentary on Leviticus 16:10, that goats represent the God-given human power to resist, and that the Azazel goat used in the Yom Kippur service ...
- 47.4k
2
votes
Why did Yonah run away?
R. Saadia Gaon explains (Emunot V’Deiot 3:5) that Yonah had fulfilled his mission:
If, furthermore, one were to ask, “But how was it that Jonah was chosen to carry out a mission from which he ran ...
- 48.7k
2
votes
Why did Yonah not command circumcision on the people of Ninevah, especially in the light of the message of Teshuvah?
The Kli Yakar on that verse in Bereishit says that Yosef's action was done for a reason irrelevant to the people in Ninveh. According to the Kli Yakar (I'm summarizing from the text I found on sefaria....
- 37.4k
2
votes
Omitted Part of Yonah?
"Let My Nation be Warned" explains that this is why we throw in three pesukim from Michah at the end of the Haftarah. Although this is the end of the Sefer, those three pesukim were Yonah's response.
- 33.8k
2
votes
Pharaoh ruled Nineveh for 500 years?
In Otzar Hamidrashim there's a midrash called Divrei Hayamim Lemoshe which says:
"...ויוליכוהו לנינוה העיר הגדולה, וימלוך פרעה על נינוה ד׳ מאות שנה."
Translation: "...And they led him ...
- 23.6k
1
vote
Why is the King of Nineveh in Yonah unnamed?
Every single letter in Torah teaches us something. There was nothing to be gained by noting the name of anyone left unnamed, and if there was something to be gained but not in the way of the possuk, ...
- 49
1
vote
Was the "three days and three nights" in the prophetic book of Jonah a complete span of 72 hours?
The Da'at Mikra commentary (written by Elyakim Ben-Menachem) on this verse says that it means three full days (ie. 72 hours):
אִלו אמר שלשה ימים, לא היה במשמע שלשה ימים שלמים, אבל כשהוא אומר ימים ...
- 9,374
1
vote
Did Yonah Hanavi destroy Ninveh?
I found this reference online (italics mine):
Pirke deRabbi Eliezer 42
Rabbi Nechunia, son of Hakanah, said: Know the power of repentance. Come and see from Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who rebelled most ...
- 37.4k
1
vote
Why did Yonah run away?
This question was posed to Radbaz (Shu"t 2:842).
He essentially has three suggestions.
1) It was not considered withholding his prophecy (which is punishable by death) because he hadn't yet received ...
- 48.7k
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