Why ‘Jonah’ is appropriate to read Yom Kippur afternoon

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 help readers see that the fish is not the climax of Jonah—the human heart is.

The ultimate question is not simply, “Could Jonah survive inside a fish?” It is: Can a human being learn to care about people whom he regards as enemies? That question explains both Jonah’s power and its remarkable appropriateness for Yom Kippur.

The 117-page 2024 graphic novel combines the complete biblical Hebrew text, an English translation, and graphic storytelling. Koren describes it as a faithful rendering that seeks to expose “hidden layers of meaning” through art as well as text. The book succeeds in this task.

David Sacks is an American television writer and producer with a strong interest in Jewish thought and spirituality. He was born and raised in New York City and graduated from Harvard College in 1984 with a degree in Government. At Harvard, he became an editor of The Harvard Lampoon, beginning his career in comedy writing. He subsequently moved to Los Angeles and became a television writer and producer.

For Yona, Sacks worked with producer Jordan B. Gorfinkel, the four artists, and one colorist. The end product is a work of art, comparable to a well-written book and a museum painting, a volume that can teach readers much.

What did Maimonides say about Jonah? In his Guide for the Perplexed 2:48, he explains how biblical language can attribute an event to God without meaning that God directly performed the physical act.

Maimonides teaches his readers to distinguish between the biblical attribution of an event to God and its immediate physical cause. In other words, biblical language saying that “God did” or said something does not necessarily mean God directly intervened in nature the way a human being might. God was the ultimate cause of the event because God created the laws of nature, but the act happened according to those laws.

What about the fish and the three days and three nights that we are told Jonah sat in the bowels of the fish unharmed? This impossible event further indicates that the tale should be understood as a parable written to teach significant lessons.

The ending of the Jonah tale is the most important part of the entire book. Jonah is angry because God does not destroy Nineveh after its inhabitants repent. Jonah explains why he originally fled: “For I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abundant in kindness…” Jonah understood God’s mercy, but he did not like it when God extended that mercy to people whom he considered deserving punishment.

God responds and teaches Jonah through the remarkable episode of the plant, the worm, and the hot wind. Jonah feels compassion for the plant whose shadow protected him from the weather because its disappearance causes him discomfort. God then asks, in effect: If you can feel compassion for a plant that you did not create or cultivate, shouldn’t I have compassion for thousands of human beings in Nineveh?

God, in essence, tells Jonah and us that we may readily forgive ourselves, our family, our friends, and people who agree with us, while finding it much harder to forgive people we regard as enemies or morally inferior. This teaching makes Jonah an extraordinarily universal book. Its message is not merely “repent so God will forgive you.” It also calls on humans to become persons who can forgive others. The book expands the meaning of teshuvah, “repentance,” “the correction of improper behavior.” We are not asked to change our behavior toward God; we are challenged to change our attitude toward other human beings.

The universal dimension is particularly striking. Nineveh is a non-Israelite city, yet God cares about its inhabitants and accepts their repentance. Scholars have therefore emphasized the book’s universalism, its concern with moral wrongdoing, human responsibility, correcting mistakes, and the value of every living creature.

The practice of reading Jonah on Yom Kippur dates back to at least the rabbinic period. The Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 31a, explicitly states that at the afternoon service of Yom Kippur, the prophetic reading is Jonah.

Jonah is read on Yom Kippur because virtually every major theme of Jonah speaks directly to Yom Kippur: resolving to correct our behavior. People are responsible for their conduct and can change it. God’s compassion extends beyond Israel to the people of Nineveh—warning against judging others. Jonah wants punishment; God emphasizes compassion and the possibility of a new beginning. Nineveh’s future is changed because its inhabitants change their behavior.

The Koren graphic art edition’s art can make several things immediately visible that can be difficult to perceive when reading four short chapters of biblical prose. These include fear, resistance, anger, despair, and frustration, which become visible rather than merely described. The storm and Jonah’s descent into the depths can be experienced visually. Visual composition can emphasize how physically and psychologically separated he is from everyone around him. The reader can see the contrast between a city facing destruction and a population responding to Jonah’s warning.

Rather than becoming merely an argument about whether the fish event is physically possible, the artwork lets the reader experience it as part of Jonah’s extraordinary descent and transformation. The visual contrast during his confrontation with God helps communicate the absurdity of Jonah’s compassion for a plant. At the same time, he remains angry that God has compassion for thousands of human beings.

We begin to realize that if Jonah is not historical but rather a parable, we can see Jonah as a depiction of what the Germans call yedermann, “everyone.” Just as Moses, Elijah, and Jonah became inappropriately pious, so do many humans today. Like Jonah, humans sometimes think their reason is better than God’s. Also, among many other insights, if Jonah is a parable, the protagonist may be called Jonah because, like the biblical pigeon during the days of Noah’s flood, the Hebrew for pigeon is Yonah, and the word in the flood tale symbolizes the peace that can come, and it has the same meaning here.

This edition is similar to the one about the first eleven chapters of Genesis, but it differs. It contains three prologues: from Genesis, a history of the time of the Jonah events, and information from the biblical book of Kings. All are informative and have vivid drawings. It also includes two pages of “Behind the Scenes” drawings showing draft versions that were changed in the final book.