Yonah: Its message and significance for our lives.
Sefer Yonah is a small book found in the Twelve Prophets, between Ovadia
and Micha. Yet, it is widely considered to be one of the most profound
books of Tanach. In the story of one man's flight "from the Presence of the
L-rd", an attuned reader will find sublime and intensely personal
reflection about the nature of obedience and limits of autonomy, the
relations between emotion and intellect, mercy and justice, redemption and
repentance and much more.
The lecture series will bring the entire extent of traditional and
contemporary scholarship to bear on the message on the Book of Yonah. We
will secondarily introduce the reader to the variety of skills that he or
she can utilize to investigate other Biblical books. The intent is not to
provide passive knowledge but to present each lecture as an example of how
to uncover deeper meaning resident in the text and find its application to
our lives.
Rabbi Dr. Meir Levin lives in Monsey, NY and is on the faculty of Ohr-
Someach Tannenbaum Educational Institutions. He studied under R. Joseph Dov
Soloveitchik and R. Shneur Kotler. A former pulpit rabbi, he is the author
of Novarodok: The Movement that Lived in Struggle and its Unique Approach
to the Problem of Man (Jason Aronson, New Jersey 1996) and With All Your
Heart: The Shema in Jewish Liturgy, Worship and Life (Targum/Feldheim,
Jerusalem, 2002).
