I once asked this question to an expert in shul on Yom Kippur, and he looked at me as if I was stupid and said 'Of course not! Don't be stupid'. So I guess the answer is no. But if that's not true, is the story of Yonah at all inspiring? So this year I asked the same expert to inspire me about Yonah - and this is what he said.
He said, what's the message of Sefer Yonah? I replied, Teshuva. He said, go on. I said, err, that Yonah didn't want Nineveh to do Teshuvah because it would make the Bnai Yisrael look bad. He said that was a high school answer. So I said, you tell me. So he said, the point is that Yonah didn't care about Nineveh. Presumably because they were goyim. And the entire message of Sefer Yonah, especially at the end with the moshol of the kikayon is that God says how can you not care? The whole book is very universalist.
I suppose that's true, and it's a good message for chareidim, but I found the book to be rather enigmatic, like most Biblical books. First of all, nowhere does the story actually give any reason why Yonah fled in the first place, why he didn't want to go to Nineveh, and why he was upset when they did Teshuvah. The medrash fills in the back story about embarrassing the Bnai Yisrael (or alternatively Yonah knew that the Assyrians would attack Israel in the future), but it's not in the written story, or at least not the version we have.
Secondly, the story of the kikayon is strange. After the plant dies, God asks Yonah if he is upset about the loss of the kikayon, and Yonah says yes, so upset he could die. And then God says, so if you are so upset about a kikayon which only lasted a day, how can I not be upset about a great city, with many cattle too. But this is a strange metaphor, because of course Yonah wasn't upset about the kikayon at all. He was upset because he lost his shade, and it was very hot. He couldn't give a damn about the actual plant. So the analogy doesn't really work.
He said, what's the message of Sefer Yonah? I replied, Teshuva. He said, go on. I said, err, that Yonah didn't want Nineveh to do Teshuvah because it would make the Bnai Yisrael look bad. He said that was a high school answer. So I said, you tell me. So he said, the point is that Yonah didn't care about Nineveh. Presumably because they were goyim. And the entire message of Sefer Yonah, especially at the end with the moshol of the kikayon is that God says how can you not care? The whole book is very universalist.
I suppose that's true, and it's a good message for chareidim, but I found the book to be rather enigmatic, like most Biblical books. First of all, nowhere does the story actually give any reason why Yonah fled in the first place, why he didn't want to go to Nineveh, and why he was upset when they did Teshuvah. The medrash fills in the back story about embarrassing the Bnai Yisrael (or alternatively Yonah knew that the Assyrians would attack Israel in the future), but it's not in the written story, or at least not the version we have.
Secondly, the story of the kikayon is strange. After the plant dies, God asks Yonah if he is upset about the loss of the kikayon, and Yonah says yes, so upset he could die. And then God says, so if you are so upset about a kikayon which only lasted a day, how can I not be upset about a great city, with many cattle too. But this is a strange metaphor, because of course Yonah wasn't upset about the kikayon at all. He was upset because he lost his shade, and it was very hot. He couldn't give a damn about the actual plant. So the analogy doesn't really work.
Finally, for quite a moving story with an interesting ending and good moral message, why on earth did the original writers have to bring in the wacky swallowed by a fish motif? I mean, the story would have been perfectly good and quite Biblical without it. Very strange. (Chareidim: It's so strange it must be true!)
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