The Book of Jonah

Name: The Book of Jonah
Author: Shmuly Yanklowitz
ISBN: 9780881233605

A Social Justice Commentary

by Shmuly Yanklowitz

186 Pages6.00 × 9.00 × 0.50 in

Paperback

ISBN: 9780881233605
Published: 1st Jun 2020

$19.95

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Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction: What Happens in the Book of Jonah?
Author’s Note
Chapter 1 Religious Activism: God’s Commandments and Our Responsibility
Chapter 2 God Calls Upon Jonah: Shouldering Our Responsibility
Chapter 3 When We Get Hurt: Compassion as a Response to Theodicy
Chapter 4: Each Cried Out to Their Own God: On Religious Truth in a Pluralistic World
Chapter 5: When Sadness Strikes: Anxiety, Depression, Suicide, and Saving Angels
Chapter 6: The Fish: On the Relationships between God, Humans, and Animals
Chapter: On the Power of Prayer: Prayer in Times of Distress
Chapter The World inside the Fish: The Fish and the Dove as Theological Metaphors
Chapter 9 Jonah Remained in the Fish’s Belly: On Solitary Confinement and Compassion
Chapter 10 The Gender of the Fish: A Theology beyond Gender Norms
Chapter 11 Jonah Is Saved: On Godly Justice
Chapter 12 God’s Wrath: The Ethics of Compassion
Chapter 13 Nineveh Fasts: The Book of Jonah as a Reading on the Day of Repentance
Chapter 14 God Calls Upon Us: The Human Reluctance to Change
Chapter 15 Jonah’s Hatred for the Stranger: On Tribalism, Ethnocentrism, and Fundamentalism in a Pluralistic World
Chapter 16 Protesting God: Rebellious Prophets and Human Morality
Chapter 17 When God Renounces: A Theology of Change
Chapter 18 Human Wrath: On Climate Change and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Chapter 19 Jonah and Job: Responsibility, Comfort, and Joy
Chapter 20 Gilgulim: The Jewish Theology of Reincarnation
Chapter 21 The Element of Change: Water as a Theological Metaphor
Chapter 22 Jonah’s Tomb: On Jewish-Muslim Relations in a Pluralistic World
Chapter 23 Between Joy and Exhaustion: The Jonah Complex and the Human Condition
Chapter 24 The Imperfect Jewish Hero: Encountering Moral Ambiguity with Compassion
Chapter 25 Caring about the City: A Theology of Compassion
Conclusion
Text of the book of Jonah
Notes

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the President and Dean of Valley Beit Midrash, Founder and President of Uri L’Tzedek, Founder and CEO of The Shamayim V'Aretz Institute, and Founder and President of YATOM: The Jewish Foster and Adoption Network.

Rabbi Yanklowitz’s writings have appeared in outlets as diverse as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and the Atlantic, among many other secular and religious publications. Rabbi Yanklowitz is a sought-after educator, social justice activist, and motivational speaker, as well as the author of nineteen books on Jewish spirituality, social justice, and ethics. He has published three books with CCAR Press, Pirkei Avot: A Social Justice Commentary (2018), The Book of Jonah: A Social Justice Commentary (2020), and The Book of Proverbs: A Social Justice Commentary (2022).

As a global social justice activist and educator, Rabbi Yanklowitz has volunteered, staffed trips, and taught across the world, including in Israel, Ghana, India, France, Thailand, El Salvador, England, Senegal, Germany, Switzerland, Ukraine, Argentina, South Africa, and Haiti. Rabbi Dr. Yanklowitz has also served as a rabbinic representative, facilitator, and speaker at the World Economic Forum in Geneva and Davos. Rabbi Shmuly's religious journey was filmed in the Independent Lens/PBS documentary The Calling.

Rabbi Shmuly earned a master's degree from Harvard University in Leadership and Psychology, another master's from Yeshiva University in Jewish Philosophy, and a doctorate from Columbia University in Moral Development and Epistemology. He obtained rabbinical ordination from the Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School and two additional, private ordinations in Israel. He has twice been named one of America's Top Rabbis by Newsweek. In 2016, the Forward named Rabbi Shmuly one of The Most Inspiring Rabbis in America. In 2016, the Forward included Rav Shmuly as one of the fifty most influential Jews. In the same year, Rabbi Yanklowitz was selected for the Ariane de Rothschild Fellowship in Cross-Cultural Leadership and Innovative Entrepreneurship at the University of Cambridge.

Rabbi Shmuly, his wife Shoshana, and their four children live in Scottsdale, Arizona. They are also foster parents.

In this thoughtful, powerful book, Rabbi Yanklowitz passionately demonstrates how the Book of Jonah can impact how we see the world, the divine, and our obligations to one another.
-Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, author of Surprised by God and Nurture the Wow

In this volume, Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz speaks of Jonah with the empathy, compassion, knowledge, and wisdom that always characterize his work. He examines Jonah anew to present readers with challenges, providing us with guidance as we seek to transform our lives and ameliorate the human condition. All persons will be enriched by this deeply spiritual, highly original, and insightful book.
-Rabbi David Ellenson, Chancellor Emeritus, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

Rav Shmuly is one of the most dynamic teachers of our time, and his exploration of Jonah brings an intriguing, ancient text to life for all those who seek to understand core Jewish principles of moral responsibility and social justice.
-Rabbi Jonah Pesner, Director, Religious Action Center

This book tells the story of a Jonah from a profoundly thoughtful perspective, raising questions of our responsibility to the other and our obligation to act against injustice. Rabbi Yanklowitz brings the prophet alive with all his uncertainties and imperfections, reminding us not to judge him but to strengthen our own resolve to make a difference. In studying the prophet Jonah, we are asked to study ourselves, our own disinclination to act, and our own retreat to the particular. We are reminded that the text and the teachings of our faith require us to become more ready to change, more determined to act for justice in the world. Rabbi Yanklowitz takes a well-worn text and a rarely examined prophet and brings new perspectives to life, asking us to probe Jonah's actions, his attempt to escape from God, his reluctance to act, and to consider how we are all Jonah and how we can rise above where we first land.
-Ruth Messinger, Global Ambassador, American Jewish World Service

Although I have read and reread the Book of Jonah and its commentaries for many decades, I still felt I did not clearly understand all the nuances of its implications for the story for my life; that is, until I read Rabbi Yanklowitz's new book.
--The Jerusalem Post

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The Book of Jonah

A Social Justice Commentary

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A Social Justice Commentary

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