“He sent out the raven... Then he sent out the dove”
There is a book of Kabbalah that includes a lengthy discussion on the prophet Jonah. It is called Dan Yadin by Rebbe Shimshon of Ostropoli (d. 1648) on the earlier work Dan Yadin.
Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Arizal, asks how is it that Jonah had so much influence that he could get an entire empire to do teshuvah? His answer is that Jonah is an exemplar of Mashiach son of Joseph.
From Jonah we learn that the major task entrusted with Mashiach son of Joseph is to go to the nations of the world. We know this because all that Jonah prophecized to the Jewish people is summed up in a single verse in the Book of Kings. Yet, the entire eponymously named book in the Bible, Jonah, describes his prophecy to the non-Jewish nations.
We read his book towards the end of Yom Kippur to impress upon us that even if a negative decree has been made and has been declared by a true prophet, it is possible to annul it through teshuvah—a return to God. This is true regarding non-Jews, and all the more so regarding Jews who have a commandment to do teshuvah.
Jonah’s main mission was to non-Jews and thus he can rightly be considered the universal prophet. He fled from his main mission because he was concerned that it would end up hurting his own people. If the people of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria would repent and return to God, then they would eventually conquer the Northern Kingdom of Israel, kill many of its inhabitants and exile others. Jonah further thought that if the Assyrians would repent it would place Israel in a poor light because of their conduct. However, the Almighty thought differently. He sent Jonah to Nineveh to teach the Jews a lesson about the power of teshuvah.
Normally, we argue that Mashiach son of Joseph comes before Mashiach son of David, but from a certain perspective, the highest point of Mashiach son of David’s task is similar to that of Mashiach son of Joseph—to bring all of humanity to serve God, “shoulder to shoulder.”
To clarify the relationship between the two instances of Mashiach, Mashiach son of Joseph who comes before Mashiach son of David employs teshuvah from fear to bring the non-Jews back to God. But the Mashiach son of Joseph that appears as the highpoint of Mashiach son of David’s work employs the principle of the “right hand pulls near” to fulfill the prophecy, “For then I will transform the nations to a clear language, so that they may call upon God’s Name, serving Him together.”
The prophet Jonah (Yonah, in Hebrew) is linked with Noach’s dove, which in Hebrew is a Yonah. Based on the Arizal’s analysis, Rebbe Shimshon identifies the dove with the Mashiach son of Joseph, and he identifies the raven that Noach sent with the Mashiach son of David (even though the raven is known to be cruel). The dove is of course known as a universal symbol of peace (with an olive leaf in its mouth).
So, what do we have? Initially, Noach sent the raven, the Mashiach son of David; then he sent the dove, the Mashiach son of Joseph. This parallels the notion that the Mashiach son of Joseph’s task appears at the height of the mission given to Mashiach son of David.
The sum of the values of “raven” (עֹרֵב) and “dove” (יוֹנָה) is 343, which is 7 to the 3rd power. Since between them the two words possess 7 letters, the average value of each letter is 49, or 7 squared.
What is the difference between the dove and the raven? The dove is described as “gullible” (יוֹנָה פָּתָה). But the raven is said to be “wise” (חָכָם). How is this reflected numerically? The value of “raven” (עֹרֵב) is 4 times the value of “wise” (חָכָם). Since the word “raven” in Hebrew has 3 letters, it means that the “front and back” of “raven” (ע ערב ערב ערב רב ב) equals 4 times “wise” (חָכָם).
(Excerpted from a class given on 12 Tishrei, 5778)
