Jonah Leaves Us with Questions, So on Yom Kippur We End with Micah

The book of Jonah is a remarkable four-scene^[1] story that is both absurd and sublime.^[2] The tradition of reading Jonah during the afternoon service, for many the centerpiece of the day, goes back, at least, to the Babylonian Talmud:

^{בבלי מגילה לא.} בְּיוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים קוֹרִין ״אַחֲרֵי מוֹת״, וּמַפְטִירִין ״כִּי כֹה אָמַר רָם וְנִשָּׂא״. וּבַמִּנְחָה קוֹרִין בָּעֲרָיוֹת וּמַפְטִירִין בְּיוֹנָה.

^{b. Megillah 31a} On Yom Kippur, we read [from the Torah] “after the death” [Lev 16],^[3] and read the prophetic unit, “For thus said He who is high aloft” [Isa 57:15]. And during the afternoon service we read about forbidden sexual relationships [Lev 18], and read as the prophetic unit [the book of] Jonah.”^[4]

This custom likely originated in Babylonia, although it was adopted in the Land of Israel by the seventh century.^[5]

The Supplementation of Jonah with Micah

Haftara readings are typically a set of consecutive verses from a single book, yet in most synagogues, the reading from Jonah is supplemented by the last three verses of the prophet Micah, the book that immediately follows Jonah in תרי עשׂר, the Book of the Twelve (Minor Prophets):

^{מיכה ז:יח} מִי אֵל כָּמוֹךָ נֹשֵׂא עָו‍ֹן וְעֹבֵר עַל פֶּשַׁע לִשְׁאֵרִית נַחֲלָתוֹ לֹא הֶחֱזִיק לָעַד אַפּוֹ כִּי חָפֵץ חֶסֶד הוּא. ^ז:יט יָשׁוּב יְרַחֲמֵנוּ יִכְבֹּשׁ עֲו‍ֹנֹתֵינוּ וְתַשְׁלִיךְ בִּמְצֻלוֹת יָם כָּל חַטֹּאותָם. ^ז:כ תִּתֵּן אֱמֶת לְיַעֲקֹב חֶסֶד לְאַבְרָהָם אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּעְתָּ לַאֲבֹתֵינוּ מִימֵי קֶדֶם.

^{Mic 7:18} Who is a God like You, forgiving iniquity and remitting transgression; who has not maintained His wrath forever against the remnant of His own people, because He loves graciousness! ^7:19 He will take us back in love; He will cover up our iniquities, You will hurl all our sins into the depths of the sea. ^7:20 You will keep faith with Jacob, loyalty to Abraham, as You promised on oath to our fathers in days gone by.

This kind of addition is unusual. Indeed, according to an early rabbinic source, only in the Book of the Twelve is it permitted to skip from one book to another in a haftara:

^{תוספתא מגילה (ליברמן) ג:יט} מדלגין בנביא ואין מדלגין בתורה ואין מדלגין מנביא לנביא ובנביא של שנים עשר מדלגין ובלבד שלא ידליג מסוף הספר לראשו.

^{t. Megillah 3:19} One can skip [verses] when reading from the prophets, but one cannot skip verses when reading from the Torah. But one may not skip from one book of the prophets to another book of the prophets. However, inside the book of the twelve prophets, one may skip [from one book to another] as long as one does not skip from the end to the beginning.[6]

We know that this custom of adding these Micah verses to Jonah developed in the Geonic period; it moved from Babylonia into Italy, Provence, and Spain, and only entered Ashkenazi tradition after the 17^th century (see appendix by Zev Farber).^[7] But why were these verses added?

Abravanel: Temporary Reprieve for Nineveh versus Full Reprieve for Israel

The earliest explanation I found is in the final paragraph of Don Isaac Abravanel’s (1437–1508) commentary to Jonah:

^{אברבנאל יונה ד} והנה מתקני ההפטרות סמכו לנבואה הזאת שלשה פסוקים אחרים שהם מנבואת מיכה והם מי אל כמוך וגומר, וענינם שהקדוש ברוך הוא לנינוה לא היה עובר על פשע מוחל וסולח בהחלט אבל האריך להם אפו עד שנחרבו אחר כך ע"י נבוכדנצר.

^{Abravanel Jonah 4} Those who established the prophetic readings^[8] put three verses from the prophet Micah adjacent to this prophecy [of Jonah]: “Who is a God like you….” The juxtaposition suggests that God did not absolve Nineveh absolutely but gave them a reprieve until they were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.

אבל לישראל בשובם אליו אינו כן כי הוא נושא עון ועובר על פשע לחלוטין והוא אומרו מי אל כמוך נושא עון ועובר על פשע לשארית נחלתו כי בעבור היותם נחלתו ועמו לא החזיק לעד אפו כי חפץ חסד הוא לעשות עמהם

But when Israel returns to him, it is not the case [that the reprieve is temporary], but he forgives absolutely. This is what [Micah means when he says]: “Who is a God like You, forgiving iniquity and remitting transgression for the remnant of His own inheritance” [Micah 7:18]. Because they are His inheritance and His people, “He has not maintained His wrath forever because He loves graciousness” [Micah 7:18] to do this for them.

ולא יעשה כן לשאר הגוים החטאים בנפשותם, ולכן נקוה לו שישוב ירחמנו יכבוש עונותינו והוא לזמן הגאולה העתידה שאז תתן אמת ליעקב חסד לאברהם

But He will not do for other nations who are fundamentally sinners. That is why we hope that “He will take us back in love; he will cover up our iniquities” [Micah 7:19]—this refers to the time of the future redemption, when “You will keep faith with Jacob, loyalty to Abraham” [Micah 7:20].

In other words, Abravanel suggests, Micah highlights the exceptionalism of Israel, which has a special relationship with YHWH that is not shared by other nations.^[9]

Micah as Commenting On, Reframing, or Amplifying Jonah

The opening words of the addition, מִי אֵל כָּמוֹךָ, “Who is a God like you?” which speaks directly to YHWH,^[10] are likely meant to be put in Jonah’s mouth. This offers Jonah an opportunity to react to and even accept YHWH’s message at the end of the book (4:10–11), and presents a more satisfying conclusion to the book than the words וּבְהֵמָה רַבָּה, “and many animals.”^[11] Beyond this, several other literary and linguistic connections, and theological revisions could have led to the custom of adding these verses; perhaps several of these functioned in tandem.

a. The Depths of the Sea

The verses from Micah connect to Jonah based on their literary resonance. Jonah speaks of being cast into the depths of the sea:

^{יונה ב:ד} וַתַּשְׁלִיכֵנִי מְצוּלָה בִּלְבַב יַמִּים וְנָהָר יְסֹבְבֵנִי כָּל מִשְׁבָּרֶיךָ וְגַלֶּיךָ עָלַי עָבָרוּ.

^{Jonah 2:4} You cast me into the depths, into the heart of the sea, the floods engulfed me; all Your breakers and billows swept over me.

The words מצולה, “depths” and ים, “sea” are also used together in Micah:

^{מיכה ז:יט} יָשׁוּב יְרַחֲמֵנוּ יִכְבֹּשׁ עֲו‍ֹנֹתֵינוּ וְתַשְׁלִיךְ בִּמְצֻלוֹת יָם כָּל חַטֹּאותָם.

^{Mic 7:19} He will take us back in love; He will cover up our iniquities, You will hurl all our sins into the depths of the sea.

This phrase appears only in these two verses and in one very obscure psalm (68:23).^[12] The juxtaposition of this rare phrase makes it look like Micah, which in the Hebrew canon immediately follows Jonah, is commenting on Jonah, and thus makes the verses that include this phrase a fitting coda to the book. Jonah’s complaint that he has been thrown into the sea is replaced by the image of our sins being thrown into the sea.^[13]

The opening part of the verse is itself remarkable. According to Micah, it is YHWH, not Israel, who returns—יָשׁוּב from the root שׁוב, the word that expresses repentance in rabbinic texts, especially in its noun form, teshuvah.^[14]

The image of YHWH conquering sin – this is the proper translation of יִכְבֹּשׁ עֲוֹֽנֹתֵינוּ – is unique and equally remarkable—so remarkable that many scholars emend כבשׁ, “to conquer,” to כבס, “to wash sins away.”^[15] But need this vivid image be emended away? And the end of the verse, where the sins do not merely disappear, but are hurled into the depths of sea, is most comforting, for what is hurled there will surely and totally disappear.

b. If Nineveh A Fortiori Israel

The book of Jonah is unusual in having its Israelite protagonist prophesy only to the people of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.^[16] Other prophetic books contain oracles against the nations, but these are typically a small part of a larger prophetic book,^[17] and no other prophet beyond Jonah is asked to travel to the foreign city to deliver the prophecies there.^[18]

The reading of Jonah on Yom Kippur is thus an odd selection for that day, since it highlights the effective repentance of a nation other than Israel. Readers might adduce from Jonah a type of קל וחומר—an a fortiori argument: If YHWH forgives repentant Ninevites, YHWH will certainly forgive us if we repent with equal sincerity. But this is not explicit in Jonah—and the passage in Micah, which explicitly focuses on Israel, may have been added to the haftara to make this explicit.

c. Does God Always Accept Repentance?

When the king of Nineveh hears Jonah’s warning, he tells his people to repent:

^{יונה ג:ט} מִי יוֹדֵעַ יָשׁוּב וְנִחַם הָאֱלֹהִים וְשָׁב מֵחֲרוֹן אַפּוֹ וְלֹא נֹאבֵד.

^{Jon 3:9} Who knows but that God may turn and relent? He may turn back from His wrath, so that we do not perish.

The phrasing “who knows?”^[19] suggests that repentance does not automatically bring about divine forgiveness. This idea contradicts many passages in the Bible, that either through sacrifices or through mending one’s ways and returning to YHWH, an individual’s or the community’s sins may be remitted.^[20] For example, Deuteronomy 30:1–10, through its use in seven clauses of the root shuv, “to return,” is structured to state emphatically that if Israel returns to YHWH, YHWH will restore Israel’s fortunes.^[21] Ezekiel is equally emphatic about the efficacy of repentance to avert death at YHWH’s hands:

^{יחזקאל יח:כז} וּבְשׁוּב רָשָׁע מֵרִשְׁעָתוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וַיַּעַשׂ מִשְׁפָּט וּצְדָקָה הוּא אֶת נַפְשׁוֹ יְחַיֶּה. ^יח:כח וַיִּרְאֶה (וישוב) [וַיָּשָׁב] מִכָּל פְּשָׁעָיו אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה חָיוֹ יִחְיֶה לֹא יָמוּת.

^{Ezek 18:27} And if a wicked person turns back from the wickedness that he practiced and does what is just and right, such a person shall save his life. ²⁸ Because he took heed and turned back from all the transgressions that he committed, he shall live; he shall not die.

In contrast to these two representative texts, the quote from the king of Nineveh suggests that returning to YHWH does not automatically assure that YHWH will return to the sinner. What does that mean for Israel or for Jews praying on Yom Kippur? Such a perspective is not terribly reassuring.

MT Cantillation Marks Repunctuate the Quote

Indeed, through interpretation later Jewish tradition has corrected it in various ways: The cantillation marks, which also serve as punctuation marks,^[22] suggest that it should be read:

^{יונה ג:ט} מִֽי־יוֹדֵ֣עַ יָשׁ֔וּב

^{Jon 3:9} [He] who knows will return,

וְנִחַ֖ם הָאֱלֹהִ֑ים וְשָׁ֛ב מֵחֲר֥וֹן אַפּ֖וֹ וְלֹ֥א נֹאבֵֽד:

and God will relent. He will turn back from His wrath, so that we do not perish.

This is not a likely reading in terms of Hebrew syntax, but it solves the theological problem by suggesting that the “who knows” refers not to YHWH’s reaction to the repentance, but to a person who knows they have sinned—they must repent.^[23] This counter-syntactical reading is also reflected in the slightly expansive Aramaic Targum Jonathan to this verse:

^{תרגום יונתן יונה ג:ט} מַן יְדַע דְאִית בִידֵיה חוֹבִין יְתוּב מִנְהוֹן וְיִתרַחַם עֲלַנָא מִן קֳדָם יוי וִיתוּב מִתְקוֹף רוּגזֵיה וְלָא נֵיבַד׃

^{Targum Jonathan, Jonah 3:9} Let whoever knows that there are sins on his hands repent from them that there might be shown mercy upon us from before the Lord and that he might turn from his fierce anger that we should not perish.^[24]

Rashi also interprets this way, glossing the phrase with: מי יודע – עבירו[ת] שבידו ישוב, “who knows the sins that he has committed shall repent.” Radak, in contrast (in his first interpretation), ignores the punctuation that the cantillation marks imply and glosses אולי ישוב ונחם האלהים בשובינו ממעשינו הרעים, “perhaps God will turn and relent when we turn away from our evil deeds”—making the point that human repentance does not automatically assure divine forgiveness.

Ending the reading of Jonah with Micah’s statement that YHWH is merciful and takes us back in love accomplishes something similar by establishing that YHWH unquestionably forgives sinners—no ifs or buts about it.

d. Is God’s Mercy a Good Thing?

Jonah complains about YHWH’s mercy for the people of Nineveh:

^{יונה ד:ב} ... כִּי יָדַעְתִּי כִּי אַתָּה אֵל חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב חֶסֶד וְנִחָם עַל הָרָעָה.

^{Jonah 4:2} … For I know that You are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in kindness, renouncing punishment.”^[25]

The first of the three Micah verses can easily read as a commentary on this complaint, reframing it as praise, given the overlapping vocabulary:

^{מיכה ז:יח} מִי אֵל כָּמוֹךָ נֹשֵׂא עָו‍ֹן וְעֹבֵר עַל פֶּשַׁע לִשְׁאֵרִית נַחֲלָתוֹ לֹא הֶחֱזִיק לָעַד אַפּוֹ כִּי חָפֵץ חֶסֶד הוּא.

^{Mic 7:18} Who is a God like You, forgiving iniquity and remitting transgression; who has not maintained His wrath forever against the remnant of His own people, because He loves graciousness!

This verse is longer and more powerful than that of Jonah.^[26] The phrase עֹבֵר עַל פֶּשַׁע, also used in Proverbs 19:11, is best rendered “overlooking offence[s]”^[27]—according to Micah, sins or offenses disappear from the divine gaze. The phrase חפץ חסד is especially remarkable—it is better translated as “delights in steadfast love.”^[28] These two words are used closely together only here and in Hosea:

^{הושע ו:ו} כִּי חֶסֶד חָפַצְתִּי וְלֹא זָבַח ...

^{Hos 6:6} For I desire ḥesed, not sacrifice….

In Hosea, it is the people who must do ḥesed, while here it is YHWH who does ḥesed. And the strong verb חפץ used with ḥesed is best translated as “to delight, to take pleasure in.” This is an amazing and appropriate depiction of God on Yom Kippur, as delighting in divine ḥesed, and thus forgiving Israel. This is a stronger image than Jonah’s רַב חֶסֶד, “abounding in ḥesed.”

Adding this to the end of the haftara gives the impression that Jonah is not only accepting that the way he previously described God is actually positive, but it even has him amplifying the message, waxing poetic about God’s great mercy and kindness.

A midrash sees Jonah quoting Micah (7:18) in response to God’s rebuke, accepting that God deals in mercy and not just justice:

^{מדרש יונה} באותה שעה נפל יונה על פניו לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא ואמר לפניו: רבש"ע כלום היא לפניך מדת הדין? במדת רחמים תנהיג את עולמך ונאה לך תהלה, שכן כתיב (דניאל ט:ט): "לה' אלהינו הרחמים והסליחות." שנאמר (דברים ד:לא): "כי אל רחום ה' אלהיך." וכתיב (מיכה ז:יח): "מי אל כמוך נושא עון," וכתיב (תהלים לג:ה): "חסד ה' מלאה הארץ."^[29]

^{Midrash Jonah} At that time, Jonah fell on his face before the Blessed Holy One and said before him: “Master of the universe, do you not have before you the trait of justice? But you run your world with the trait of mercy, and you are worthy of praise. For it is written (Dan 9:9): “To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness,” for it says (4:31): “For the LORD your God is a compassionate God.” And it is written (Mic 7:18): “Who is a God like you forgiving iniquity?” And it is written (Ps 33:5): “the earth is full of the LORD’S faithful care.”

The midrash here envisions Jonah himself making use of the verse from Micah to declare that he learned his lesson and now sees God’s mercy upon all people as a positive trait.

e. Micah Disambiguates the Conclusion of Jonah

The final verse of Jonah, which ends God’s response to Jonah’s complaint about the shriveling of the kikayon (castor oil?) plant, is generally understood to be a rhetorical question:

^{יונה ד:י} וַיֹּאמֶר יְ־הוָה אַתָּה חַסְתָּ עַל הַקִּיקָיוֹן אֲשֶׁר לֹא עָמַלְתָּ בּוֹ וְלֹא גִדַּלְתּוֹ שֶׁבִּן לַיְלָה הָיָה וּבִן לַיְלָה אָבָד. ^ד:יא וַאֲנִי לֹא אָחוּס עַל נִינְוֵה הָעִיר הַגְּדוֹלָה אֲשֶׁר יֶשׁ בָּהּ הַרְבֵּה מִשְׁתֵּים עֶשְׂרֵה רִבּוֹ אָדָם אֲשֶׁר לֹא יָדַע בֵּין יְמִינוֹ לִשְׂמֹאלוֹ וּבְהֵמָה רַבָּה.

^{Jon 4:10} Then YHWH said: “You cared about the plant, which you did not work for and which you did not grow, which appeared overnight and perished overnight.^4:11 And should not I care about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not yet know their right hand from their left, and many beasts as well!”[30]

In context, this is the natural understanding of the sentence. Yet, nothing formally and unequivocally marks this verse as a question.^[31] From a purely grammatical perspective, it could be rendered as a declarative statement: “Yet I will not care about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not yet know their right hand from their left, and many beasts as well,” contrasting Jonah’s knee-jerk, selfish reaction to the destruction of the kikayon plant^[32] to the mysterious and even capricious justice of YHWH.

Indeed, Alan Cooper of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, prefers this understanding,^[33] arguing that reading the last two verses as an a fortiori (qal vaḥomer) is problematic.^[34] For Cooper, the actions of God “are uncanny and inexplicable.”^[35] Is this the message we really want to hear on Yom Kippur, as the day begins to dim?

The addition of the Micah verses to the haftara has the effect of pushing back against such a view of divine justice, as Cooper himself notes: “And that is the point of Mic. 7.18–20, which provides the real resolution of the Book of Jonah.”^[36] When read in synagogue on Yom Kippur, these verses in Micah certainly do correct this possible understanding of Jonah, noting that YHWH will forgive Israel unconditionally—even if it is uncertain whether the Ninevites have been forgiven.

Ending with YHWH’s Covenant with Israel

Jonah ends with YHWH’s mercy towards Nineveh. Yom Kippur, however, is about Israel’s repentance and YHWH’s covenant with the people. The final verse of Micah brings us back to this theme:

^{מיכה ז:כ} תִּתֵּן אֱמֶת לְיַעֲקֹב חֶסֶד לְאַבְרָהָם אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּעְתָּ לַאֲבֹתֵינוּ מִימֵי קֶדֶם.

^{Mic 7:20} You will keep faith with Jacob, loyalty to Abraham, as You promised on oath to our fathers in days gone by.

The words ʾemet “faith” and ḥesed “loyalty/steadfastness” are often used together^[37] and reflect the contents of the covenant YHWH made with Israel and its ancestors.^[38] In the context of Yom Kippur this recalls a major theme of the High Holydays—zekhut ʾavot—the merits of the ancestors (literally: fathers). This is a rabbinic conception, that Israel, even generations and centuries later, benefits from the merit-worthy deeds performed by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.^[39]

That rabbinic conception finds its precursor in the Bible,^[40] where YHWH, even generations later, remembers the covenant that He made with the ancestors—a covenant that cannot be revoked, and assures Israel’s perpetual continuation. For example, after noting all the terrible calamities that will befall Israel, the תוכחה, the great rebuke of Leviticus notes:

^{ויקרא כו:מב} וְזָכַרְתִּי אֶת בְּרִיתִי יַעֲקוֹב וְאַף אֶת בְּרִיתִי יִצְחָק וְאַף אֶת בְּרִיתִי אַבְרָהָם אֶזְכֹּר וְהָאָרֶץ אֶזְכֹּר.

^{Lev 26:42} Then will I remember My covenant with Jacob; I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham, namely, I will remember the land [promised to them by that covenant].”^[41]

Israel’s positive future is secured—indeed, the last words imply in Leviticus as they do here that YHWH will not merely remember that oath, but will “take an action on what is recalled.”^[42] As Yom Kippur moves toward its conclusion, this is a most comforting thought.

Addendum

Adding Obadiah and Micah: The Original Geonic Custom

Dr. Rabbi Zev Farber

The custom of adding Micah verses at the end of the reading of Jonah on mincha (the afternoon service) of Yom Kippur goes back to Geonic times. Originally, it also included the final verse in Obadiah, to be read before the reading of Jonah commences:

^{עובדיה א:כא} וְעָלוּ מוֹשִׁעִים בְּהַר צִיּוֹן לִשְׁפֹּט אֶת הַר עֵשָׂו וְהָיְתָה לַי־הוָה הַמְּלוּכָה.

^{Obad 1:21} For liberators shall march up on Mount Zion to wreak judgment on Mount Esau; and dominion shall be YHWH’s.

This tradition—largely lost^[43]—has Jonah framed by the end of previous book, Obadiah, and the end of following book, Micah. This can hardly be coincidental; this reading is likely meant to encapsulate the three consecutive books of Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah, but the reason for this is unclear.

The earliest explicit reference to the custom is from Hilkhot Pesukot, the earliest halakhah book ever written, and believed to be authored by R. Yehudai Gaon, who led the Babylonian academy at Surah from 757 to 761:

^{הלכות פסוקות} במינחתא קרן מן וידבר דכמעשה ארץ מצרים עד סוף עינינא כוליה עד קדשים, ומפטר בנביא בתרי עשרא ועלו מושיעים ונבואתה דיונה כולה ומי אל כמוך נושא עון ודבתריה ודבתריה.^[44]

^{Hilkhot Pesukot} During mincha, they read from the “And [God] spoke” of “like the ways of Egypt” (Lev 18) until the end of the subject entirely, until “[be] holy” (Lev 19). And the haftara is from the book of the twelve, “and liberators march up” (Obad 1:21), and the prophecy of Jonah in its entirety, and “who is a God like you?” (Mic 7:18), and the first (verse) afterwards, and the one after that.

The same description appears in the Seder Rav Amram Gaon, who led the academy in Sura from 857 until his death in 875.^[45] Not all Geonim had this custom; Sa’adia Gaon (882–942), for instance, who came from Egypt but moved to Baghdad when appointed head of the Sura, notes only the reading of Jonah in his siddur.^[46] Nevertheless, the custom spread into the Sephardic lands of Europe.

Practice Everywhere but Ashkenaz

For instance, in 11^th century Spain, R. Isaac ben Judah ibn Ghiyyat (ca. 1030–1089), in his Shaʿarei Simchah “Gates of Joy,” a halakhic compendium on the festivals, records this same practice:

^{רי"ץ גיאת יום הכפורים עמוד פז} ובמנחה מוציאין ספר תורה וקורין ג' בעריות שמא יש אחד שנכשל בע[בי]רה דערוה ושכח וכששומע נזכר וחוזר ומתודה עליה. והשלישי הוא מפטיר ביונה ומתחיל (עובדיה א') ועלו מושיעים ונבואה דיונה כולה ומסיים (מיכה ז') מי אל כמוך נושא עון.

^{Ibn Ghiyyat Yom Kippur} During Mincha, they take out the Torah scroll and three people read from the laws against sexual sins, because perhaps someone succumbed to the sin of sexual impropriety and forgot, and when he hears then he remembers and confesses about it. And the third person also reads from haftara of Jonah, and he begins with “and liberators march up” (Obad 1:21) and then the entire prophecy of Jonah, and he ends with “who is a God like you” (Mic 7:18).

In Italy, we find this same law in the Shibolei HaLeket, by the 13^th century R. Zedekiah ben Abraham Anav:

^{שבלי הלקט סדר יום הכיפורים שכ} ומפטירין בנבואת יונה בתרי עשר ומתחילין ועלו מושיעים בסוף נבואת עובדיה ומסיים מי אל כמוך בסוף נבואת מיכה דקיימא לן בנביא של שנים עשר מדלגין מנביא לנביא....

^{Shibbolei HaLeket Yom Kippur §320} And the haftara comes from the prophecy of Jonah in the book of the twelve. They begin with “and liberators march up” (Obad 1:21) at the end of the prophecy of Obadiah, and it ends with “who is a God like you?” at the end of Micah, for we have established that in the prophecies of the twelve, it is permissible to skip from one prophet[ic book] to another…^[47]

The practice also appears in Provence. The Sefer HaEshkol, written by R. Abraham ben Isaac of Narbonne (ca. 1080–1158), notes:

^{ספר האשכול (אלבק) הלכות קריאת התורה סו.} במנחה קרו מן כמעשה ארץ מצרים עד קדושים תהיו, ושלישי מפטיר ועלו מושיעים בהר ציון, ונבואת יונה כלה, ומי אל כמוך.

^{Sefer HaEshkol (Albeck) Torah Reading p. 66a} During mincha they read from “Like the ways of Egypt” (Lev 18) until “Be holy” (Lev 19). And the third reader also reads the haftara “and liberators march up on Mount Zion” (Obad 1:21), and the entire prophecy of Jonah, and “who is a God like you?” (Mic 7:18).^[48]

While this Geonic custom appears to have been standard in these countries, we do not find it in the classically Ashkenazi lands of northern France and Germany. It is not mentioned in the Machzor Vitri, Siddur Rashi, Minhagei Marseille (12^th cent.), Raʾaviah, Rokeach, Or Zarua, or Mordechai all of repeat the Talmudic ruling of מפטירין ביונה “the haftara is from Jonah” like the Talmud.^[49]

Unsurprisingly, the first Ashkenazi source we found who refers to the custom is the Tur, R. Jacob bar Asher (ca. 1270–ca.1340), who lived in Spain:

^{טור אורח חיים יום הכיפורים תרכב} והשלישי הוא מפטיר ביונה ומסיים מי אל כמוך.

^{Tur OḤ Yom Kippur §622} The third [Torah reader] recites the haftara from Jonah and ends with “who is a God like you?” (Mic 7:18).

Notably, the Tur is the first source to describe the custom the way it is practiced today, with the Micah verses but without mentioning the verse from Obadiah. It appears this way as well in the influential book on prayer by the Tur’s student, R. David Abudarham (14^th cent.):

^{ספר אבודרהם יום הכפורים} ומפטיר ביונה עד סופו בתרי עשר ומסיים מי אל כמוך כמו שהוא בסוף ספר מיכה.

^{Sefer Abudarham Yom Kippur} One recites the haftara from Jonah until the end, which is in the book of the twelve, and he ends with “who is a God like you” which is the end of the book of Micah.

A third Spanish scholar from this period, R. Chiya ibn Chaviv of Barcelona (14^th cent.), also records the truncated version of the practice in his Sefer HaShulchan:

^{ספר השולחן הלכות תפילה שער ו} ומפטיר בתרי עשר ויהי דבר י"י אל יונה בן אמתי עד ובהמה רבה. ומדלג לספר אחר ואומר מי אל כמוך, ישוב ירחמנו וגו' תתן אמת ליעקב וגו'.

^{Sefer HaShulchan Prayer Gate 6} One recites the haftara from the Book of the Twelve, “And the word of the LORD came to Jonah some of Amitai” (Jon 1:1) until “and a great many beasts” (Jon 4:11) and then skip to a different book, and recite “who is a God like you,” (Mic 7:18) “He will take us back in love,” (Mic 7:19) “You will keep faith with Jacob, etc.” (Mic 7:20).

These authorities do not note the shift in custom, and we do not know why the reading of Obadiah 1:21 fell off, while Micah continued. R. Joseph Karo describes the practice in the same way, without Obadiah, in the Shulchan Arukh (OḤ 626):

^{טור אורח חיים יום הכיפורים תרכב} וְהַשְּׁלִישִׁי מַפְטִיר בְּיוֹנָה וּמְסַיֵּם: מִי אֵל כָּמוֹךָ.

^{Tur OḤ Yom Kippur §622} The third [Torah reader] recites the haftara from Jonah and ends with “who is a God like you?” (Mic 7:18).

Adopted by Ashkenazim Only in the 17^th Century

Even after the inclusion of the final Micah verse by the Ashkenazi R. Jacob ben Asher in the Tur, the custom remains absent from Ashkenazi sources, as is clear from a survey of the 15^th century minhag works from the German sages.^[50] Indeed, the Ashkenazi contemporary of Karo, R. Mordechai Jaffe (1530–1612), who wrote a Shulchan Arukh-like work also following the Tur’s structure, still doesn’t mention the custom:

^{לבוש אורח חיים יום הכיפורים תרכב:ב} ומפטיר ביונה לפי שיש בו גודל כח התשובה ומסיים ובהמה רבה...

^{Levush OḤ §622:2} And he recites the haftara from Jonah because it speaks of the great power of repentance. And he finishes at “and a great many beasts” (Jonah 4:11).

In 16^th century Greece, we hear of an unusual version of this custom. R. Elijah Capsali (1483–1555) of Crete wrote a letter to his colleague, the Maharam, R. Meir Katzenellenbogen (1482–1565), who was born in Germany but served as rabbi of Padua in Italy, asking to cancel a local custom. We do not have the letter, but we learn of it from Maharam Padua’s response:

^{שו"ת מהר"ם פדואה עח} ראיתי אשר חבר מעלתך לבטל מנהג קדמון בעירך אשר נהגו לקרות ביו"כ בהפטרת יונה ג' פסוקים הראשונים לבד בלשון הקודש ולתרגם אחר כך כל הנביא מראש ועד סוף בלע"ז יונית ולדלג אחר כך לקרא במיכה ג' פסוקים ולתרגם אותם.

^{Responsa Maharam Padua §78} I see that his honor wrote [that you wish] to cancel an ancient custom in your city that their practice is to read on Yom Kippur the haftara of Jonah only the first three verses in Hebrew, and to translate afterwards the entire prophetic book from beginning to end in Greek, and then to skip afterwards to the three verses of Micah, and [then] to translate them.^[51]

Although he too finds it strange, Maharam Padua defends the custom, and it is this responsum that appears in the commentary of the Ashkenazi sage, R. Abraham Gombiner (1635–1682), in his glosses on the Shulchan Arukh:

^{מגן אברהם סימן רפד הקדמה} ובקצת מקומות שקורין במנח' י"כ רק ג"פ בהפטר' יונה והשאר אומרים בלע"ז ואחר כך אומרים מי אל כמוך.

^{Magen Avraham OḤ 284} And in some places they read on mincha of Yom Kippur just three verses from the haftara of Jonah [in Hebrew], and the rest the read in a foreign language, and afterwards they say “who is God like you?”

This is one of the first mentions of reading these verses in an Ashkenazi source, but Gombiner is referring to it as a strange foreign (=Greek) custom.^[52] Though I do not know when exactly it entered Ashkenazi tradition, it appears in the Shulchan Arukh of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745–1812), the founder of Chabad (Lubavitch):

^{שלחן ערוך הרב אורח חיים תרכב:ד} והשלישי מפטיר ביונה לפי שיש בו כח התשובה ושאין יכולין לברוח מאת פני הקדוש ברוך הוא ונוהגים לסיים ההפטרה במיכה מי אל כמוך כו'.

^{Shulchan Arukh HaRav OḤ 622:4} And the third [person called to the Torah] reads the haftara from Jonah, because it contains [the lessons of] the power of repentance, and that one cannot escape from the blessed Holy One. And the custom is to end the haftara with Micah, “who is a God like you?”

It also appears in the siddur of R. Chanokh Zundel son of Joseph (d. 1867):

^{סידור ראשי בשמים} והשלישי מפטיר ביונה... ומסיים ההפטרה בפסוקי מיכה "מי אל כמוך."^[53]

^{Siddur Roshei Besamim} And the third [person called to the Torah] reads the haftara from Jonah… And he ends the haftara with verses from Micah, “who is a God like you?”

The addition of these verses appears nowadays in all the standard machzorim (festival prayer books).