Yonah on Yom Kippur - What's the Relevance?

Why do we read Yonah on Yom Kippur?

So we read Sefer Yonah to teach us about teshuva. A very apt topic for Yom Kippur.

But wait!

Where in Sefer Yonah do we actually see teshuva?

Most people would point to Ninveh's repentance as the archetype of teshuva in the Sefer.

If this were the case, why is the book called Sefer 'Yonah', not Sefer 'Ninveh'?

Furthermore, it seems unusual that we would bring a non-Jewish city's repentance as an example for our Jewish day of atonement?

Additionally, Ninveh's teshuva comes in the final chapter of Sefer Yonah, what is the purpose of the chapters preceding it?

Let's dive in...

Why did Yonah run away from Hashem?

What sort of reason is this for Yonah being upset with Hashem for the task he had been given?!

It doesn't seem to fit in with the sort of character we would expect a prophet to embody.

Furthermore, he could have headed off these concerns by caveating his prophecy that if Ninveh were to repent, Hashem would not punish them!

A further suggestion as to the reason for Yonah's unhappiness...

However, it still seems a little odd. He is a prophet! It is not his job to be making these calculations as to whether it will show the Jewish people up in a bad light. Hashem told him to perform a task, he should do it! Furthermore, if he feels that the Jewish nation deserve rebuke, give them rebuke as well!

A further reasoning given for Yonah's discomfort is that Ninveh was the capital of Assyria, which in a century's time would destroy the whole upper-kingdom of Israel. Yonah might have been ultra-averse to giving this nation any more merit than they were deserved of.

This suggestion also runs into an issue. When Hashem says at the end of the Sefer "...should not I care about Nineveh", Yonah does not respond: "you should care about the Jewish people more, Ninveh are going to destroy them!" He is silent.

Let's try and develop a complete approach as to why Yonah ran away from Hashem and his mission...

Yonah himself tells us why he ran away!

Yonah appropriates the 13 attributes of Heavenly mercy as the reason he disobeyed God, except he misses out the attribute of 'emes' - 'truthfulness'.

He challenges Hashem on the lack of truthfulness/justice inherent in this story.

Yonah's modus operandi is truth, he is even called 'ben Amitai' - 'the son of truth'!

Truth means that every action has a consequence.

Yonah clearly views Ninveh's fate as equivalent to that of Sodom and Ammorah, or the Jewish people after the sin of the golden calf. Even with Avraham's petition, those cities were not deserved of salvation. Even though Hashem forgave the people after the sin of the golden calf, there were still deadly consequences.

Yonah does not see any space for teshuva here. He doesn't even give Ninveh the option! The city is deserved of consequences for their evil actions. Yonah cannot entertain the possibility that 'emes' dissolves here.

How does Hashem respond to Yonah's devastating challenge?

Yonah was already sheltered by a hut! Why did he need this plant for shade?!

The Kikayon was an expression of pure 'rachamim' - 'mercy'. It came from nothing, without any cause or source in order to provide comfort to Yonah. It did not 'deserve' to exist in a strictly truth-based world.

Rachamim (from the same route as 'rechem' - 'womb') is solely about potential for the future. It doesn't judge someone's worth based on their achievements until now, but rather, what they can achieve going forward.

The posuk hints that the function of the Kikayon was to counterbalance Yonah's truth-based worldview: "לְהַצִּ֥יל ל֖וֹ מֵרָֽעָת֑וֹ" - to save him for the discomfort he was feeling at the seeming lack of emes in the world.

Even prophecy (as represented by Yonah in our story) is unable to find a get-out clause for a sinner! Only Hashem himself introduces the concept of repentance.

Although teshuva is the mighty engine that drives the world, people have the immature idea that it is merely a makeshift measure implemented to rectify sin.
Thus even after a person has engaged in teshuva, he can slip back into committing sins because he views teshuva not as a holistic way of being, but as a temporary cure, a specific lotion to treat a specific wound. This is a constricted way of looking at spiritual illness - of not realising that it has cosmic significance and that the prescription is thus also cosmically significant.
Teshuva is not an antidote for a specific element. It is a permanent feature of creation.
Some people are not ready for the opportunity of teshuva because they think of it as a favour that God bestows, like a person throwing a bone to a dog, and I feel unworthy of taking this gift. Rav Kook teaches that teshuva is much more than a gift for a downtrodden and miserable people. Teshuva is the life-energy of existence itself. It is a permanent fixture in creation, from the beginning to the end of time.

Whenever a person strays from the proper path, he can grab onto the energy of Teshuva, and it will draw him back.

Teshuva is not a childish concept about making amends, saying you're sorry and getting off Scot free for your sins. It is a fundamental, foundational concept without which reality could not exist! Teshuva is not something we 'do', it is a flow that we can tap into in which potential for the future is taken into account by Hashem, not just the basic truth of what 'deserves' to exist based on its current status and achievements.

In the final pesukim of the Sefer, Hashem teaches Yonah that rachamim is a foundational aspect of the world, which cannot be sustained by the attribute of pure truth an justice alone...

Does Yonah reach this realisation? The Sefer leaves us on a cliff-hanger.

The Midrash fills in the gap, making it very clear that the message of the Sefer is that Hashem runs the world with mercy as well as with justice...

This is why is is called Sefer Yonah, not Sefer Ninveh. The story is about Yonah's realisation of the way the world functions, not simply about a non-Jewish city's repentance. This is why we need the whole book not just the final chapter. We need to learn that Yonah's life revolved around truth and justice to set the scene for the revelation about mercy.

What more relevant book could there be to read on Yom Kippur?!

It teaches us that teshuva is a fundamental aspect of the world, one which we can tap into on Yom Kippur. What we do on Yom Kippur is not just asking forgiveness, it is recognising that the whole of reality is sustained by Hashem's attribute of mercy - seeing beyond basic deservedness and looking to potential.