PESACH and Responsibility

On YOM KIPPUR, we read the book of Jonah. Jonah was called to be a prophet but he was a poor choice and was, in fact, a failure at his job.
God instructed Jonah to go to Nineveh and announce that after 40 days, the city would be destroyed. Jonah fled and wound up being eaten by a
big fish and regurgitated 3 days later.

40 is a magic number to Jews and in our history.

.The Deluge lasted 40 days
.Israel wandered in the wilderness 40 years
.The book of Judges usually reports that after the armies of Israel win a war that the Land had rest 40 years.
.Yeshua the Nazarene who taught the AM-HA'ARETSIM of Galilee is said to have begun his ministry in the dessert for 40 days.

When an individual was deemed a danger to society in olden times, he was put in Quarantine. The word comes from the Italian QUARANTENA, meaning forty-day period. Although we no longer isolate people for 40 days, we still use the word to mean setting aside an individual from the community.

I said that Jonah was a failure at his mission but that shouldn't surprise anyone familiar with the TANACH. It is THE story of failure. Adam and Eve, failure. Cain and Abel, failure. The generation of the Flood, failure. The builders of the Tower of Babel, failure. The time of the judges and the kings of Israel, all failures. And the failure always has to do with the issue of responsibility, or the lack thereof.

I'd like to look at three men portrayed in our scriptures and address their relationship to the issue of responsibility.
They are
.Noah
.Abraham
.Jonah

.Noah
Genesis 6:9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

Our Sages tell us, Noah was perfect in his generations but had he lived in the generation of Abraham, he would be a nobody. What was Noah's problem, seen from a Jewish point of view? Noah said nothing upon hearing the news of the coming destruction of life on earth; Noah did not plead for his fellow man; Noah did not even inquire as to why innocent animals had to die because of the sins of people. He acted irresponsibly, and therefore he did not merit to be the father of the Jewish people.

.Abraham
Genesis 17:1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

Abraham was perfect by God's witness, not only for his generations but for all generations. And his perfection was achieved, not by walking with God but by leading God; he walked before God by God's request and was perfected by that walk.

Genesis 18:25 [It] be far from thee to ...  slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

Unlike Noah, Abraham pleads for his fellow man. he already loves his neighbor as himself and cannot judge the Sodomites unless he knows they deserve punishment. Noah, in the Jewish view, walked TOO MUCH with God. Abraham walked with people. He acted responsibly, and therefore merits to be the father of the Jewish people.

.Jonah
In the final analysis, Jonah proves to be less responsible than Noah. Noah at least said nothing.
 
 
Jonah 3:4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.  5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

But Jonah was not happy with the way this turned out. He remonstrates with God.

Jonah 4:2 I fled unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
11 [but, said God] should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

So by his own admission, Jonah knew that God would forgive the repentant and yet he said nothing of that to the Ninevites. He was half-hearted in his mission and acted irresponsibly. Now we see that God did follow Abraham and indeed here he even speaks like Abraham. Noah did not speak out to save even the animals but God now speaks in their behalf. In other words, God speaks responsibly, like a Jew, and therefore merits to be the God of the Jewish people.

On the SEDER night, we Jews say, HAW LACHMA, This is the bread. What kind of bread? LACHMA OWNYA. OWNYA is a strange word which we usually translate as "affliction" or "poverty". But OWNYA is related to the Hebrew verb LA'ANOT, to respond. HAW LACHMA OWNYA DI ACHELU AVATANA B'ARA DI MITSRAYIM. This is the bread of Responsibility that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt.

On the first SEDER night, God instructed us to eat MATSA. It was flat and tasteless but we were instructed to eat it as an act of faith. God said, if you eat this responsible bread, and show Me that you are faithfully responsible, I will take you out of this Egyptian quarantine, a ten-fold quarantine where you have been, not 40 years, but 400 years. And I will give you the TORAH and I will give you the YOM KIPPUR of forgiveness but you must act responsibly.

We hold the MATSA and say, KAWL DICHFIN YEYTEY VE'YECHOL, All you irresponsible people out there, come in here and eat this responsible bread and act like Jews, like Abraham, like God.

Abraham, our father, perhaps the most responsible person in all human history.