(1) The word of the Eternal came to Jonah son of Amittai: (2) Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim judgment upon it; for their wickedness has come before Me. (3) Jonah, however, started out to flee to Tarshish from the Eternal’s service. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went aboard to sail with the others to Tarshish, away from the service of the Eternal. (4) But the Eternal cast a mighty wind upon the sea, and such a great tempest came upon the sea that the ship was in danger of breaking up. (5) In their fright, the sailors cried out, each to his own god; and they flung the ship’s cargo overboard to make it lighter for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the vessel where he lay down and fell asleep. (6) The captain went over to him and cried out, “How can you be sleeping so soundly! Up, call upon your god! Perhaps the god will be kind to us and we will not perish.” (7) The men said to one another, “Let us cast lots and find out on whose account this misfortune has come upon us.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. (8) They said to him, “Tell us, you who have brought this misfortune upon us, what is your business? Where have you come from? What is your country, and of what people are you?” (9) “I am a Hebrew,” he replied. “I worship the Eternal, the God of Heaven, who made both sea and land.” (10) The men were greatly terrified, and they asked him, “What have you done?” And when the men learned that he was fleeing from the service of the Eternal—for so he told them— (11) they said to him, “What must we do to you to make the sea calm around us?” For the sea was growing more and more stormy. (12) He answered, “Heave me overboard, and the sea will calm down for you; for I know that this terrible storm came upon you on my account.” (13) Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to regain the shore, but they could not, for the sea was growing more and more stormy about them. (14) Then they cried out to the Eternal: “Oh, please, Eternal One, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not hold us guilty of killing an innocent person! For You, O Eternal, by Your will, have brought this about.” (15) And they heaved Jonah overboard, and the sea stopped raging. (16) The men feared the Eternal greatly; they offered a sacrifice to the Eternal and they made vows.
(4) Jonah started out and made his way into the city the distance of one day’s walk, and proclaimed: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (5) The people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast, and great and small alike put on sackcloth.
(10) God saw what they did, how they were turning back from their evil ways. And God renounced the punishment He had planned to bring upon them, and did not carry it out.
(משלי לא כט): "רבות בנות עשו חיל" ...
"ותקם בעוד לילה" - זו בתיה בת פרעה, גויה היתה ונעשית יהודיה, והזכירו שמה בין הכשרות, בשביל שעסקה במשה, לפיכך זכתה ונכנסה בחייה לגן עדן.
[A woman of valor, who can find ...] Many women have done well (Proverbs 31:29) ... "She rises while it is still night" - this is Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh. She was a gentile and became a Jews and they mentioned her name among the honorable [women], since she took care of Moses. Therefore she merited and entered the Garden of Eden in her lifetime.
וַתְּבִאֵהוּ לְבַת פַּרְעֹה וגו'. הָיְתָה בַת פַּרְעֹה מְנַשֶּׁקֶת וּמְחַבֶּקֶת וּמְחַבֶּבֶת אוֹתוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא בְּנָהּ, וְלֹא הָיְתָה מוֹצִיאַתּוּ מִפַּלְטֵרִין שֶׁל מֶלֶךְ ...
וַתִּקְרָא שְׁמוֹ משֶׁה, מִכָּאן אַתָּה לָמֵד שְׂכָרָן שֶׁל גּוֹמְלֵי חֲסָדִים, אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁהַרְבֵּה שֵׁמוֹת הָיוּ לוֹ לְמשֶׁה, לֹא נִִקְבַּע לוֹ שֵׁם בְּכָל הַתּוֹרָה אֶלָּא כְּמוֹ שֶׁקְּרָאַתּוּ בַּתְיָה בַּת פַּרְעֹה, וְאַף הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לֹא קְרָאָהוּ בְּשֵׁם אַחֵר:
“And she brought him to the daughter of Pharaoh…” The daughter of Pharaoh would kiss and hug and adore him (Moses) as if he were her own son, and she would not take him out of the king’s palace ...
“And she called his name ‘Moshe’” – From here you can learn about the merit of those that perform acts of kindness. Even though Moses had many names, the only name that was set throughout the Torah, was the name that Bathyah daughter of Pharaoh called him. Even the Holy One Blessed is He did not call him by another name.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch on Exodus 2:10
Pharaoh’s daughter called her foster son Moshe, one who draws out of the water, and not Mashui, one who is drawn from the water. Perhaps this gives us an indication of the whole tendency of the education which the princess gave her foster son…that all his life is he to have a tender heart for other people’s troubles and always be on the alert to be a moshi’a, a deliverer in times of distress. His Hebrew name always kept the consciousness of his origin awake within him. The princess surely inquired of the mother the Hebrew term for expressing this thought, otherwise she would have given him an Egyptian name. In all this we can see the noble humane character of Moses’s savior”
(9) You stand this day, all of you, before the Eternal your God—your tribal heads, your elders and your officials, all the men of Israel, (10) your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to water drawer— (11) to enter into the covenant of the Eternal your God, which the Eternal your God is concluding with you this day, with its sanctions.
מחטב עציך. מְלַמֵּד שֶׁבָּאוּ כְנַעֲנִיִּים לְהִתְגַּיֵּר בִּימֵי מֹשֶׁה כְּדֶרֶךְ שֶׁבָּאוּ גִּבְעוֹנִים בִּימֵי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, וְזֶהוּ הָאָמוּר בַּגִּבְעוֹנִים (יהושע ט') "וַיַּעֲשׂוּ גַם הֵמָּה בְּעָרְמָה", וּנְתָנָם מֹשֶׁה חוֹטְבֵי עֵצִים וְשׁוֹאֲבֵי מַיִם:
מחטב עציך FROM THE WOODCHOPPER — This teaches that some of the Canaanites came to convert in Moses' days just as the people of Givon came in the days of Joshua, — and this is the meaning of what is stated of the residents of Givon, (Joshua 9:4) “And they also acted cunningly”; — and Moses made them choppers of wood and drawers of water.
(22) Joshua summoned them and spoke to them thus: “Why did you deceive us and tell us you lived very far from us, when in fact you live among us? (23) Therefore, be accursed! Never shall your descendants cease to be slaves, hewers of wood and drawers of water for the House of my God.” (24) But they replied to Joshua, “You see, your servants had heard that the Eternal your God had promised His servant Moses to give you the whole land and to wipe out all the inhabitants of the country on your account; so we were in great fear for our lives on your account. That is why we did this thing. (25) And now we are at your mercy; do with us what you consider right and proper.” (26) And he did so; he saved them from being killed by the Israelites. (27) That day Joshua made them hewers of wood and drawers of water—as they still are—for the community and for the altar of the Eternal, in the place that He would choose.
In the Ashkenazi tradition, the public reading of the scroll is followed by reciting a poem whose unknown author lived no later than the 11th century. The concluding lines are usually sung to an up-beat tune:
Cursed is Haman, who sought to destroy me;
Blessed is Mordecai the Jew.
Cursed is Zeresh, wife of my tormentor;
Blessed is Esther, who protected me -
And also Harbonah, who is to be remembered for the good!
(9) And Harbonah, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “What is more, a stake is standing at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai—the man whose words saved the king.” “Impale him on it!” the king ordered.
(ג) וְאַל־יֹאמַ֣ר בֶּן־הַנֵּכָ֗ר הַנִּלְוָ֤ה אֶל־יְהוָה֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר הַבְדֵּ֧ל יַבְדִּילַ֛נִי יְהוָ֖ה מֵעַ֣ל עַמּ֑וֹ וְאַל־יֹאמַר֙ הַסָּרִ֔יס הֵ֥ן אֲנִ֖י עֵ֥ץ יָבֵֽשׁ׃ (ד) כִּי־כֹ֣ה ׀ אָמַ֣ר יְהוָ֗ה לַסָּֽרִיסִים֙ אֲשֶׁ֤ר יִשְׁמְרוּ֙ אֶת־שַׁבְּתוֹתַ֔י וּבָֽחֲר֖וּ בַּאֲשֶׁ֣ר חָפָ֑צְתִּי וּמַחֲזִיקִ֖ים בִּבְרִיתִֽי׃ (ה) וְנָתַתִּ֨י לָהֶ֜ם בְּבֵיתִ֤י וּבְחֽוֹמֹתַי֙ יָ֣ד וָשֵׁ֔ם ט֖וֹב מִבָּנִ֣ים וּמִבָּנ֑וֹת שֵׁ֤ם עוֹלָם֙ אֶתֶּן־ל֔וֹ אֲשֶׁ֖ר לֹ֥א יִכָּרֵֽת׃ ... (ז) ... כִּ֣י בֵיתִ֔י בֵּית־תְּפִלָּ֥ה יִקָּרֵ֖א לְכָל־הָעַמִּֽים׃
(3) Let not the foreigner say, Who has attached himself to the Eternal, “The Eternal will keep me apart from His people”; And let not the eunuch say, “I am a dried-up tree.” (4) For thus said the Etneral: “As for the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths, Who have chosen what I desire And hold fast to My covenant— (5) I will give them, in My House And within My walls, A monument and a name better than sons or daughters. I will give them an everlasting name which shall not perish .. (7) ... My House shall be called A house of prayer for all peoples.”
... שֶׁכָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל יֵשׁ לָהֶם חֵלֶק לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁחָטְאוּ שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (ישעיה ס כא) "וְעַמֵּךְ כֻּלָּם צַדִּיקִים לְעוֹלָם יִירְשׁוּ אָרֶץ". אֶרֶץ זוֹ מָשָׁל כְּלוֹמַר אֶרֶץ הַחַיִּים וְהוּא הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. וְכֵן חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם יֵשׁ לָהֶם חֵלֶק לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא:
... all Israel have a share in the World to Come, even as it is said: "Thy people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever" (Isaiah 60:21). So, too, do the righteous of among the nations of the world have a share in the World to Come.
תניא היה ר"מ אומר גדולה תשובה שבשביל יחיד שעשה תשובה מוחלין לכל העולם כולו שנא' ארפא משובתם אוהבם נדבה כי שב אפי ממנו מהם לא נאמר אלא ממנו
It was taught in a baraita that Rabbi Meir would say: Great is repentance because the entire world is forgiven on account of one individual who repents, as it is stated: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for My anger has turned away from him” (Hosea 14:5). It does not say: From them, i.e., from the sinners, but “from him,” i.e., from that individual. Because he repented, everyone will be healed.