The Gra: an inner reading

Sefer Yonah | A symbolic overview, separate from the verse-by-verse peshat

In the Gra’s symbolic reading, Yonah represents the soul and his flight represents turning from a spiritual calling towards worldly attractions. Tarshish evokes wealth and commerce; the sea’s waves evoke the troubles of human life. The biblical story becomes a way of considering what the soul seeks and what calls it back. These associations have textual anchors: Tarshish’s commerce appears in Yehezkel 27:12, and the imagery of waves overwhelming a person appears in Tehillim 42:8 as well as Yonah 2:4.

This overview follows Rabbi Elyakim Krumbein’s account of the Gra’s interpretation in “This World and the World to Come” (Torat Har Etzion, lesson 12) . It is a summary of the approach, not a quotation or full translation of the Gra.

Questions from the text

1. Read Yonah 1:3 and 2:4-5 again. Which words carry the themes of flight, distress and return in the narrative?
2. Compare the overview with Radak on 1:3. How does “from before Hashem” refer to a prophetic role in one reading and the soul’s calling in the other?
3. In 2:5, what place does Yonah wish to face again? How does that wish connect the physical story with the theme of return?

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