The Runaway Prophet

Dear friends, 

I was in Jaffa this week, at the very port where the prophet Jonah found a boat going as far as possible to run away from facing God. And another Jonah was there, except he couldn’t find a boat that sails further than Tel Aviv. That didn’t seem far enough to him, so instead he sat around chatting people up and comparing stories of escape. 

“Where are you from,” he asked me. 

“Jerusalem,” I answered, “but I live in Brooklyn.”

“Ah,” he smiled, “Which fault did your ancestors find in me that they went so far away from me?”

“That’s what Jeremiah spoke,” I retorted, “But I follow King Solomon:

‘Like a bird wanders from its nest, so a person wanders from his place.” 

“It’s that simple,” he cried, and broke into a happy laugh. “He’s just w-a-n-d-e-r-i-n-g away!”

“What’s so funny,” I asked.

“It’s not you,” he said, suddenly staring at me with his piercing blue eyes, “it’s me!”

The next day I thought I saw him at the demonstration. But it may have been some other runaway prophet.

Shabbat shalom, 
Rabbi Misha