The Invention of Solitude

jealous for the glory of the son (Israel) but not for the glory of the father (God). ”
    Nevertheless, Jonah finally agrees to go to Ninevah. But even after he delivers his message, even after the Ninevites repent and change their ways, even after God spares them, we learn that “ it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. ” This is a patriotic anger. Why should the enemies of Israel be spared? It is at this point that God teaches Jonah the lesson of the book—in the parable of the gourd that follows.
    “ Doest thou well to be angry? ” he asks. Jonah then removes himself to the outskirts of Ninevah, “ till he might see what would become of the city ” —implying that he still felt there was a chance Ninevah would be destroyed, or that he hoped the Ninevites would revert to their sinful ways and bring down punishment on themselves. God prepares a gourd (a castor plant) to protect Jonah from the sun, and “ Jonah was exceedingly glad of the gourd. ” But by the next morning God has made the plant wither away. A vehement east wind blows, a fierce sun beats down on Jonah, and “ he fainted, and wished himself to die, and said, it is better for me to die than to live ” —the same words he had used earlier, indicating that the message of this parable is the same as in the first part of the book. “ And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou has not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night and perished in a night; And should I not spare Ninevah, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle? ”
    These sinners, these heathen—and even the beasts that belong to them—are as much God ’ s creatures as the Hebrews. This is a startling and original notion, especially considering the date of the story—eighth century B.C. (the time of Heraclitus). But this, finally, is the essence of what the rabbis have to teach. If there is to be any justice at all, it must be a justice for everyone. No one can be ex cluded, or else there is no such thing as justice. The conclusion is in escapable. This tiniest of books, which tells the curious and even comical story of Jonah, occupies a central place in the liturgy: it is read each year in the synagogue on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is the most solemn day on the Jewish calendar. For everything,- as has been noted before, is connected to everything else. And if there is everything, then it follows there is everyone. He does not forget Jonah ’ s last words: “ I do well to be angry, even unto death. ” And still, he finds himself writing these words on the page before him. If there is everything, then it follows there is everyone.

    The words rhyme, and even if there is no real connection between them, he cannot help thinking o f them together. Room and tomb, tomb and womb, womb and room. Breath and death. Or the fact that the letters of the word “ live ” can be rearranged to spell out the word “ evil. ” He knows this is no more than a schoolboy ’ s game. Surprisingly, however, as he writes the word “ schoolboy, ” he can remember himself at eight or nine years old, and the sudden sense of power he felt in himself when he discovered he could play with words in this way—as if he had accidentally found a secret path to the truth: the absolute, universal, and unshakeable truth that lies hidden at the center of the world. In his schoolboy enthusiasm, of course, he had neglected to consider the existence of languages other than English, the great Babel of tongues buzzing and battling in the world outside his schoolboy life. And how can the absolute and unshakeable truth change from language to language?
    Still, the power of rhyming words, of word transformations, cannot altogether be dismissed. The feeling of magic remains, even if it cannot be connected with a search for the truth, and this same magic, these same correspondences between words, are present in every language, even though the particular combinations are dif ferent. At the heart of each language there is a network of rhymes, assonances, and overlapping meanings, and each of these occur rences functions as a kind of bridge that joins opposite and con trasting aspects of the world with each other. Language,