I Call to You: Jonah’s Prayer

In my search for prayers and songs original to Tanakh, but earlier than The Song of the Sea (the prayer the Hebrews sing after crossing the Red Sea), Rabbi Irwin Keller suggested I look at Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the fish. While the Jonah story itself is newer than the story of Exodus, my Rabbi told me that particular prayer is thought perhaps to be an adaptation of one much older.

1 And the Lord appointed a huge fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.
2 And Jonah prayed to the Lord his God, from the belly of the fish.
3 And he said: I called out from my distress to the Lord, and He answered me; from the belly of the grave I cried out, You heard my voice.
4 And You cast me into the deep in the heart of the seas, and a river surrounded me; all Your breakers and Your waves passed over me.
5 And I said, “I have been driven away from before Your eyes,” Indeed, I will continue to gaze upon Your Holy Temple.
6 Water has surrounded me even to the soul, the deep encompassed me; the Red Sea hangs over my head.
7 To the bottom of the mountains I descended, the earth-its bars are closed on me forever; but You brought up my life from Gehinnom, O Lord, my God.
8 When my soul grew faint upon me, I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came to You to Your Holy Temple.
9 Those who keep worthless futilities abandon their kindness.
10 But I-with a voice of thanks will I sacrifice to You; what I vowed I will pay, for the salvation of the Lord.
11 And the Lord said to the fish, and it spewed Jonah onto the dry land.

Jonah, Chapter 2

Filled with imagery of water and earth and emerging, I decided to use it in a scene of my novel with a woman in labor. As a song the midwives teach so they can time contractions (by seeing how far through the song the woman gets). It has references to the Red Sea and the Temple which of course don’t work in a pre-Exodus society, so I’m going to assume those were added when the prayer was adapted to fit into Jonah’s story.  I’ve reworked the prayer to be a song, with a couple contemporaneous references added (and anachronistic ones removed).  

I then collaborated with Jill Rose, who set the song to music. Suzanne Shanbaum headed a team who created a video of Jill and others performing the song. The video premiered on Yom Kippur, during a pandemic-era Zoom-only service. The book of Jonah being the standard reading for Yom Kippur afternoon.

I Call to You

I call to You, El, in my distress
I call to You, God of Compassion
You answer me, You hear my voice
I cry out from the belly of the grave

You cast me deep in the heart of the seas
And the Nile surrounds me flowing
Breakers and waves pass over me
Have I been driven away from your eyes?

     Water surrounds me, even to the soul
     The deep encompasses me
     El, You save me and forever I sing your praise

To the bottom of mountains I descend
As the earth closes on me forever
But you bring back my life, from toil and pain
From the depths of Gehinnom I come

When grows my soul faint upon me
I remember the Compassionate One
I pray to You, kind and giving
With my voice I thank You for salvation

     Water surrounds me, even to the soul
     The deep encompasses me
     El, You save me and forever I sing your praise

References

• Yonah (Jonah), Chapter 2. Chabad-Lubavitch Media Center.
• Rabbi Irwin Keller, personal correspondence, 2020.
• I Call to You. Cyndi Norwitz and Jill Rose. Premiered September 28, 2020; video posted October 1, 2020. Congregation Ner Shalom YouTube page. A collaboration of composer Jill Rose and lyricist Cyndi Norwitz. This is a recasting of chapter 2 of the Book of Jonah – Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the fish. Written for Yom Kippur Minchah 2020. Words: Cyndi Norwitz; Music: Jill Rose; Vocals: Jill Rose; Backup Vocal: Irwin Keller; Guitar: Suzanne Shanbaum; Flute: Sheridan Gold; Bass: Lynn Keller; Music Engineering: Suzanne Shanbaum; Video Editing: Doron Hovav.