{"collection":"Texts of Judaism","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_jud_zdm_zdm099_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_jud_zdm_zdm099_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_jud_zdm_zdm099_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/jud/zdm/zdm099.htm","summary":"This is a passage of Kabbalistic biblical commentary, drawn from the Zohar (the central text of Jewish mysticism), in which Rabbi Abba offers an esoteric interpretation of why the prophet Jonah fled to Tarshish. The core argument is that Jonah's flight was not a naive attempt to hide from an omniscient God, but a deliberate departure from the Holy Land \u2014 the only territory where the Shekhinah (the divine presence) fully dwells and where prophecy can be received. When Israel was faithful, the Shekhinah remained with them as a virtuous wife stays in her husband's house, making Israel the spiritual and material sustainer of the entire world; when Israel sinned, the Shekhinah departed, stripping them of protection against foreign conquest. The text argues Jonah fled specifically to avoid being called as a prophet, knowing that outside the Holy Land the Shekhinah would not compel him \u2014 a claim supported by a reading of Ezekiel that the divine word, after the Temple's construction, operated exclusively from the Holy of Holies. The passage extends this framework to Abraham, arguing that the Shekhinah withdrew from him during his association with the spiritually compromised Lot, and fully returned only after their separation \u2014 illustrating the broader principle that divine communication requires both a sanctified place and a spiritually qualified recipient.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"Zohar: Genesis: Chapter XC. Remarks on the Schekina","tradition":"Texts of Judaism","translated_text":null,"word_count":1054}