What does the story of Yonah teach about running away from what we need to face?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau teaches that Yonah shows how a person can be moving forward and running away at the same time. Yonah “didn't sit home and hide. He bought a ticket, got on a ship, went somewhere.” From the outside, it looked like going somewhere.
Yet the pasuk describes it as “Livroach Tarshishah milifnei Hashem,” to run toward Tarshish, away from Hashem. Rabbi Landau's comment is two words: “Same trip.” The journey toward Tarshish and the escape from Hashem were one and the same.
His lesson for us: “The thing you keep running towards, look at it carefully. It might be the thing you are running from.” That is why, he says, the most dangerous escape is not alcohol or gambling. It is achievement, because it looks like progress.
Related concepts: Busy can be a way of running · Selfawareness
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
Yonah's trip to Tarshish and his flight from Hashem were the same trip.
What may be behind it
Running toward something can be a respectable way of running from something else, which is why achievement can hide an escape.
Deepest human truth
Look carefully at what you keep running toward; it may be what you are running from.
More questions from this teaching
More answers: Wisdom, Perception, and the Inner Life · All questions · Questions about Rabbi Landau and Rivnitz