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As we all know, we are about to celebrate the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur. The services are filled with hundreds of tefillot about the Jewish people, teshuva, repenting, and other things having to do with Yom Kippur. When we look at the maftir portion that’s selected for mincha, it seems almost out of place that we read the story of Yonah. Out of all the stories of tzadikim and Am Yisrael doing teshuva, why do we read a story about a man going to seek teshuva from a city of non-Jews? Perhaps reading a story of non-Jews being inspired to do teshuva, will further inspire us to do so because if non-Jews had the potential to do teshuva and God desired their return to Him, how much more so must we, God’s chosen nation, have such potential and must God desire closeness with us. 

One of the central questions asked about Yonah is why he fled from God - Why was he so opposed to the mission that God gave him to tell the people of Ninveh to repent?  And furthermore, why didn’t God then just move on to select someone else as his messenger; why did He chase after Yonah?  One explanation as to why Yonah fled is that he felt confident that the people of Ninveh’s teshuva would not be sincere and he was frustrated that he knew God would accept it anyway.  This is supported by the fact that the pesukim emphasize that their animals were included in the teshuva movement too, which is over-the-top, and indicates that they were doing it all for show.  In addition, the concluding phrase of the entire book is that God says, “Should I not have mercy on Ninveh, the large city, that has in it more than 12,000 people… and many animals,” seeming to equate the people and the animals.  Yet God DOES in fact accept their teshuva.  Perhaps the message, both to Yonah and to us, is that, Yes, Yonah was right to doubt the sincerity of their teshuva, and yes, he was right that really their repentance should not have been accepted.  Yet God insists that Yonah be His messenger to convey to him and us that even though Yonah had a valid point, God loves and cares about them (as Yonah had grown to care about the tree that shaded him) and will accept their teshuva anyway. 

Interestingly, this connects to the story of Yishmael that we read on Rosh Hashana.  In that episode, God saves Yishmael when he is dying of thirst despite the fact that he and his descendants would cause much pain to Am Yisrael in the future, because God judges him – and us – “ba’asher hu sham,” as he was at the moment, without taking into account what he might do in the future. 

The story of Yishmael and the story of Yonah together teach us a valuable and powerful lesson for our own Yamim Noraim experience.  So often, we feel overwhelmed by the thought of doing teshuva because we know that we inevitably will continue speaking lashon hara, and doing other wrong things, even if at the moment, we really wish we wouldn’t.  Perhaps the stories of Yonah and Yishmael are meant to reassure us to try our hardest to do teshuva and not be disheartened by the fact that we probably will continue to sin next year as well.  God chased after Yonah to teach him (and us) that even though he was right that Ninveh’s teshuva was not entirely sincere and probably wouldn’t last too long, it was still worthwhile and meaningful, and was enough to earn God’s forgiveness.  Surely, we can do better than the people of Ninveh so even if our teshuva is not 100%, we should never give up but should recognize that Hashem desires us and our teshuva however flawed we and it might be because Hashem loves us and cares about us.