Limits of Forgiveness: The Problem of Ninevah

Every year on Yom Kippur we read the Book of Yonah, a story that raises some difficult questions about forgiveness. Why does the prophet Yonah run from the task of calling Nineveh to repent? And why does G-d’s willingness to forgive them leave Yonah so distraught that he would rather die than see Nineveh spared?

On Yom Kippur, as we seek forgiveness for our own transgressions, the story of Yonah invites us to wrestle with how we respond when those who have wronged us or who committed grievous harm are also offered the possibility of forgiveness.

Together, we’ll study Yonah alongside the Kol Nidre liturgy and explore the tensions between justice, accountability, mercy, and teshuva. When the gates of teshuva are open, what are the limits of forgiveness? And what is required of us to make possible the redemption of our enemies?

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Rav Spike is a student of conflict, and chavruta to their own mistakes. A theater of the oppressed and transformative justice practitioner, informal street chaplain, and sometimes prison chaplain, they are especially interested in exile, shame, demons, and the yetzer ha ra, as well as their reversals: teshuva, belonging, and wholeness. At the heart of their work is a belief in the medicine of friendship, playfulness and love. By day, Rav Spike is director of a Hebrew School and companion to an adorable and enormous Bernese Mountain dog named Me’od.

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