Jonah: The Breakage

(1) The LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah; and Jonah remained in the fish’s belly three days and three nights. (2) Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish. (3) He said: In my trouble I called to the LORD, And He answered me; From the belly of Sheol I cried out, And You heard my voice. (4) You cast me into the depths, Into the heart of the sea, The floods engulfed me; All Your breakers and billows Swept over me. (5) I thought I was driven away Out of Your sight: Would I ever gaze again Upon Your holy Temple? (6) The waters closed in over me, The deep engulfed me. Weeds twined around my head. (7) I sank to the base of the mountains; The bars of the earth closed upon me forever. Yet You brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God! (8) When my life was ebbing away, I called the LORD to mind; And my prayer came before You, Into Your holy Temple. (9) They who cling to empty folly Forsake their own welfare, (10) But I, with loud thanksgiving, Will sacrifice to You; What I have vowed I will perform. Deliverance is the LORD’s! (11) The LORD commanded the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon dry land.

(7) "And the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah" (Jonah 2:1).

Rabbi Ṭarphon said: That fish was specially appointed from the six days of Creation to swallow up Jonah, as it is said, "And the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah" (Jonah 2:1). He entered its mouth just as a person enters the great synagogue, and he stood (therein). The two eyes of the fish were like windows of glass giving light to Jonah.

(8) Rabbi Meir said: One pearl was suspended inside the belly of the fish and it gave illumination to Jonah, like this sun which shines with its might at noon; and it showed to Jonah all that was in the sea and in the depths, as it is said, "Light is sown for the righteous" (Psalm 97:11).

(9) The fish said to Jonah, "Do you not know that my day had come to be devoured by Leviathan's mouth?" Jonah replied, "Take me next to it, and I will save you and myself from its mouth." [The fish] brought him next to the Leviathan. (Jonah) said to the Leviathan, "On your account I have descended to see your place in the sea, for, moreover, in the future will I descend and put a rope in your tongue, and I will bring you up and prepare you for the great feast of the righteous." (Jonah) showed it the seal of our father Abraham (saying), "Look at the Covenant (seal)," and Leviathan saw it and fled from Jonah a distance of two days' journey. (Jonah) said to [the fish] "Behold, I have saved you from the Leviathan's mouth, show me what is in the sea and in the depths."

It showed him the great river of the waters of the Ocean, as it is said, "The deep was round about me" (Jonah 2:6), and it showed him the paths of the Reed Sea through which Israel passed, as it is said, "The reeds were wrapped about my head" (Jonah 2:6); and it showed him the place from where the waves of the sea and its billows flow, as it is said, "All your waves and billows passed over me" (Jonah 2:4); and it showed him the pillars of the earth in its foundations, as it is said, "The earth with her bars for the world were by me" (Jonah 2:7); and it showed him the lowest Sheol, as it is said, "Yet you have brought up my life from destruction, O Lord, my God" (ibid.); and it showed him Gehinnom, as it is said, "Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice" (Jonah 2:3); and it showed him (what was) under the Temple of God, as it is said, "(I went down) to the bottom of the mountains" (Jonah 2:7).

Hence we may learn that Jerusalem stands upon seven (hills), and he saw there the Eben Shethiyah (Foundation Stone) fixed in the depths. He saw there the sons of Korah standing and praying over it. They said to Jonah, "See, you are standing under the Temple of God, pray and you will be answered." Right away Jonah said to the fish, "Stand in the place where you are standing, because I wish to pray." The fish stood (still), and Jonah began to pray before the Kadosh Baruch Hu, and said: "Ribono shel Olam! You are called 'the One who kills' and 'the One who makes alive,' behold, my soul has reached down to death, now restore me to life."

[Jonah] was not answered until this word came forth from his mouth: "What I have vowed I will perform" (Jonah 2:9), namely, "I vowed to draw up Leviathan and to prepare it before You, I will perform (this) on the day of the Salvation of Israel, as it is said, "But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving" (Jonah 2:10). Immediately, the Kadosh Baruch Hu hinted (to the fish) and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land, as it is said, "And Hashem spoke the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land" (Jonah 2:11).

(10) The sailors saw all the signs, the miracles, and the great wonders which the Kadosh Baruch did for Jonah, and they stood and each one cast aside their god, as it is said, "They that regard lying vanities forsake their own welfare" (Jonah 2:9). They returned to Joffa and went up to Jerusalem and circumcised their foreskins, as it is said, "And the men feared the Lord exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice unto the Lord [and they made vows]" (Jonah 1:16). Did they offer sacrifice? This [sacrifice] refers to the blood of the covenant of circumcision, which is like the blood of a sacrifice. And they made vows every one to bring their children and everything belonging to them to the Jonah's God; and they made vows and performed them, and concerning them it says, "Upon the proselytes, the proselytes of righteousness" (in the weekday Amidah, Al haTzadikim, the "righteous converts" ).