BLESSING BEFORE READING THE HAFTARA

בָּרוּךְ Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the Universe, who chose good prophets and was pleased with their words, spoken in truth. Blessed are You, LORD, who chose the Torah, His servant Moses, His people Israel, and the prophets of truth and righteousness.

HAFTARA – THE BOOK OF JONAH

The word of the LORD came to Jonah, son of Amitai, saying: “Rise up, go to the great city of Nineveh and pronounce against it, for its evil has come before Me.” But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish, away from the LORD’s presence. He went down to Jaffa and found a ship bound for Tarshish and paid his fare and went down into the ship, to come away with them to Tarshish, away from the LORD’s presence. But the LORD cast a great wind down over the sea; a great storm overcame the sea, and the boat seemed about to be shattered. The sailors were terrified and cried out, each man to his god, and they cast the vessels that were on the ship out into the sea to make themselves lighter – but Jonah went down into the belly of the ship, lay down, and fell asleep. The captain came up to him and said, “What are you thinking of, sleeper? Rise up; cry out to your god! Perhaps your god will think kindly of us and we will not be lost.” Then the men said to one another, “Come, let us draw lots, and know on whose account this evil has come to us.” They let the lots fall as they would – and the lot fell to Jonah. “Tell us,” they said to him, “on whose account has this evil come to us? What is your trade and where are you coming from? Which country is yours and which is your people?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and it is the LORD God of Heaven that I fear, who made both the sea and the land.” The men were filled with great fear, and said to him: “How could you do this thing?” For they knew that he was fleeing the LORD’s presence, for so he had told them. They said to him, “What must we do with you to still the sea for us?” – for the sea was becoming ever stormier. And he told them, “Lift me up and cast me down into the sea, and the sea will be still for you; for I know it is on my account that this great storm has come to you.” The men oared through the waves, trying to return to land. But they could not, for the sea was becoming ever stormier around them. And they cried out to the LORD and said, “Please, LORD, please do not let us be lost on account of this man’s life, and do not thrust upon us the guilt of innocent blood, for You are the LORD, and have done what You desired.” Then they lifted Jonah up and cast him down into the sea; and the sea, with all its raging, became still. And the men were filled with a great fear of the LORD, and made an offering to the LORD, and took vows. The LORD sent a great fish to swallow Jonah; and Jonah was inside that fish’s belly for three days and three nights. And Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish. He said: From a narrow place I cry out to the LORD, and He will answer me. From the belly of hell I beg – and You hear my words. You have thrown me down into the deep, to the heart of the sea, and the river swirls round me – all Your torrents and storm-waves crash over me. I said to myself, I am flung full away from Your sight. But I shall yet see Your holy Sanctuary again. The waters rush round me to my very life’s edge, the deeps surround me, reeds crown me. I have sunk down to the roots of the hills, and land is forever barred before me. Raise my life up from the abyss, LORD my God. As my spirit faints away in me, the LORD comes to my mind – and then my prayer comes to You, it comes to Your holy Sanctuary. Those who put hope in futile gods will all forsake their faithfulness. But I shall yet bring You offerings, along with thankful words. I shall fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation belongs to the LORD. And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it spat Jonah out onto the shore. So the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying: “Rise up, go to the great city of Nineveh and pronounce against it the words that I shall speak to you.” And Jonah arose and went to Nineveh as the LORD had said. Nineveh was an immensely great city, three full days’ walk across. Jonah entered a day’s walk into Nineveh and pronounced, “Forty more days, and Nineveh will all be overturned!” And the people of Nineveh had faith in God, and declared a fast and dressed themselves in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. Word reached the king of Nineveh and he rose from his throne and took off his royal mantle; he covered himself with sackcloth and sat upon ashes. And it was called out in Nineveh, in the name of the king and his nobles: “Let no person or animal, cattle or flock, taste any morsel – let them not pasture, let them drink no water. All shall be covered in sackcloth – man and beast – and shall cry out to God with a powerful cry; let every man turn back from his evil way, and from the violence that fills his hands. Who knows – perhaps God, too, will turn back and relent; will turn back from His burning rage, before we are all lost.” And God saw their actions, that they had turned back from their evil way; and God relented the evil He had spoken of inflicting on them, and did not act upon it. To Jonah this was a great evil, and it filled him with rage. He prayed to the LORD and said: “Please, LORD, is this not just what I said while I was still on my own land? This is why I first fled toward Tarshish – because I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving-kindness and relenting of evil. And now, LORD, please take my soul away from me, for death would be better than my life.” The LORD said, “Are you so enraged?” Jonah left the city and sat down to its east, and there he made himself a shelter, and sat in the shade beneath it to wait and see what would become of the city. The LORD sent a castor-oil plant, which grew up above Jonah to be shade above his head, to spare him torment; and Jonah rejoiced over this plant with great joy. And the LORD sent a worm as dawn broke the next morning, and it attacked the castor-oil plant and it withered. And as the sun rose, God sent a blasting east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head and he collapsed, and longed in his soul to die. He said, “Death would be better than my life.” God said to Jonah, “Are you so enraged over the castor-oil plant?” And Jonah said, “I am enraged enough to die.” And the LORD said, “You cared about that plant, which you did not toil for and did not grow, which appeared overnight and was lost overnight. And am I not to care for the great city of Nineveh, which has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people in it – who do not know their right hands from their left – and many animals?”

מִי אֵל כָּמֽוֹךָ Who, God, is like You, who forgives iniquity and overlooks the transgression of the remnant of Your heritage? He does not remain angry forever, for He desires loving-kindness. He shall relent and show us compassion, He shall suppress our iniquities, casting all of our sins into the depths of the sea. And all the sins of Your nation, the house of Israel, cast them down where they shall not be remembered nor recalled nor come to mind ever again. Grant truth to Jacob, loving-kindness to Abraham, as You promised our ancestors in ancient times.

BLESSINGS AFTER THE HAFTARA

בָּרוּךְ Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the Universe, Rock of all worlds, righteous for all generations, the faithful God who says and does, speaks and fulfills, all of whose words are truth and righteousness. You are faithful, LORD our God, and faithful are Your words, not one of which returns unfulfilled, for You, God, are a faithful (and compassionate) King. Blessed are You, LORD, faithful in all His words.

רַחֵם Have compassion on Zion for it is the source of our life, and save the one grieved in spirit swiftly in our days. Blessed are You, LORD, who makes Zion rejoice in her children.

שַׂמְּחֵֽנוּ Grant us joy, LORD our God, through Elijah the prophet Your servant, and through the kingdom of the house of David Your anointed – may he soon come and make our hearts glad. May no stranger sit on his throne, and may others not continue to inherit his glory, for You promised him by Your holy name that his light would never be extinguished. Blessed are You, LORD, Shield of David. Returning the Torah to the Ark

יְהַלְלוּ Let them praise the name of the LORD, for His name alone is sublime.

הוֹדוֹ His majesty is above earth and heaven. He has raised the horn of His people, for the glory of all His devoted ones, the children of Israel, the people close to Him. Halleluya!

לְדָוִד מִזְמוֹר A psalm of David. The earth is the LORD’s and all it contains, the world and all who live in it. For He founded it on the seas and established it on the streams. Who may climb the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not taken My name in vain, or sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the LORD, and just reward from God, his salvation. This is a generation of those who seek Him, the descendants of Jacob who seek Your presence, Selah! Lift up your heads, O gates; be uplifted, eternal doors, so that the King of glory may enter. Who is the King of glory? It is the LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates; lift them up, eternal doors, so that the King of glory may enter. Who is He, the King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory, Selah!

וּבְנֻחֹה יֹאמַר When the Ark came to rest, Moses would say: “Return, O LORD, to the myriad thousands of Israel.” Advance, LORD, to Your resting place, You and Your mighty Ark. Your priests are clothed in righteousness, and Your devoted ones sing in joy. For the sake of Your servant David, do not reject Your anointed one. For I give you good instruction; do not forsake My Torah. It is a tree of life to those who grasp it, and those who uphold it are happy. Its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are peace. Turn us back, O LORD, to You, and we will return. Renew our days as of old.

HALF KADDISH

Leader: יִתְגַּדַּל Magnified and sanctified may His great name be, in the world He created by His will. May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and in your days, and in the lifetime of all the house of Israel, swiftly and soon – and say: Amen.

All: May His great name be blessed for ever and all time.

Leader: Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, raised and honored, uplifted and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, above and beyond any blessing, song, praise and consolation uttered in the world – and say: Amen.