A few years ago,
I started writing a story about two different Yonahs from Tana"kh:
Yonah the dove, from Noah's Ark, and Yonah the Prophet, more commonly
known in English as Jonah. I thought Yonah the dove would have much
wisdom for Yonah the Prophet, but I have
recently started thinking more
about unsettled feelings and thoughts that the dove--as well as the
dove-partner it presumably left behind--might have. And I realized that
another Yonah should enter the picture: one of the lovers from Shir
haShirim (The Song of Songs). The woman is called "yonati", but seeing
as doves seem to come in pairs (which poses an interesting question for
Yonah the Prophet), I figure that the woman's lover may also be
classified as such.
All three share a fleeing, a
leaving, a come-and-go relationship. The dove leaves the Ark and comes
back, leaves the Ark and comes back, leaves the Ark and never returns.
Yonah the Prophet tries to escape God's mission for him with regard to
the city of Nineveh. And the lovers in Shir haShirim tear each other's
hearts when a brief coyness results in the other's withdrawal.
I want the three to meet. For now, though, a drawing related to the one whom I, for now, label Yonah 2.
