On the correct translation of Yonah as “Pigeon”: a Purim d’var Torah

Yom Hakippurim is the “day that is like Purim”, according to the Zohar, so I want to talk about the book of Yonah – or, as I would argue it should be translated, the book of Pigeon. This book is read as the Haftarah at Mincha on the day that is Purim – that is, Yom Kippur.

Yonah has several memorable animals in it. Who can forget the fish that swallows Yonah and serves as his home for three days, until it spits him out on land? Less well known is the fact that the fish switches from male to female and back to male during this episode. There are also the cattle and sheep of Nineveh who wear sackcloth and fast. Finally, Yonah is comforted by a bush that grows up and gives him shade as he hopes, desperately and futilely, to see Nineveh destroyed, only to have it cut down by a worm.

Adding the Pigeon Prophet into the mix can teach us several things.

First, just as pigeons fly away when startled, so the prophet Pigeon flies away when startled by an assignment from G!d he does not want to fulfill. G!d still catches up with him, and he must do it, but only after an initial flight in the opposite direction. This can teach us that, even if we are flighty like pigeons, we can make teshuvah and fulfill G!d’s assignments that we initially balk at.

Second, I think most of us would agree that pigeons are annoying. They do unkind things to our windshields, they startle us when they fly away suddenly, they make noise when we want silence. And they mock indoor cats! But just as the prophet Pigeon was used by G!d to bring about teshuvah of a great city, so G!d can use us, even if we are sometimes annoying ourselves.

Finally, Ben Franklin said that “the early bird gets the worm” – but in Pigeon, it’s the early worm that gets the bird, by cutting down the bush that gave him shade as he seethed in resentment over the Ninevites making teshuvah while avoiding the destruction he felt they deserved. If we focus on loving others and helping others make teshuvah (even, yes, as we fight evil and never forget Amalek), then we will have the capacity to be the early birds who get the worms. If we do not, then the early worms will get us!

Chag Purim Sameach!