DR. IRWIN COHEN Moral lessons of 'Jonah' and 'Rings'

The ancient Book of Jonah and the modern "Lord of the Rings" are amazingly similar in the message they bring. They are among the great examples in literature of the eternal battle of good and evil. Both teach eternally valid lessons of ethics and responsibility.
Let it be said at the outset that for many people there is an outstanding difference between these two books. Some hold that the Book of Jonah is literally true whereas others believe it to be an imaginative example of metaphorical fiction. My remarks do not address that difference. Factual or fiction, there is much truth in the Book of Jonah.
Both of these stories embrace religious views of the world and its creator. The Book of Jonah is an ancient prototype of a grand heroic quest, and Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" is a modern example, one of the greatest, in that category. Unlike many "quest" stories, both of these are highly moral tales, each in its own way acknowledging the presence of a moral creator of all things.
In the "Rings," the moral creator is hinted at in many places, as when the hero is "meant" to be the ring-bearer, and when it's said that the unfortunate Gollum was "meant" to be there and to play a role.
In "Jonah," on the other hand, the creator is an active participant, if only by voice.
Yet, the effect is very much the same. In both cases, the universal creator of all peoples guides, but does not control. In both cases, it remains the responsibility of the hero to accept his responsibility and to act on it.
Other parallels
There are many other similarities. In both stories, the hero is an ordinary person who is called to go on a dangerous journey into the heart of evil. In one case he must enter the dark and evil land of Mordor, and in the other he must enter the military stronghold of powerful and cruel Assyria. In both stories the hero bears the burden of averting great catastrophe. In both stories, the hero faces desperate odds, succeeds, and learns a great lesson.
Both stories use incidental magical or supernatural events -- storm, fish (not whale), and gourd in "Jonah" and volcano, rings, and assorted monsters in the "Rings." These bits of the supernatural are not mere added-on tricks of magic, but rather they are integral developments serving to stress the dangers and the importance of the quest.
But there are differences, too. In the "Rings," there is a terrible, evil force that is defeated and its subjects are killed or dispersed. In the Book of Jonah, there is no evil force, only wayward people who turn away from their ways and are saved by their repentance.
This difference explains why "Jonah" is the more profound religious book, even though "Rings" is a more thoroughly developed story. The Book of Jonah is read on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, the Day of Atonement, because its message is the saving power of mercy granted upon true atonement.
XDr. Irwin Cohen is a member of Rodef Sholem Congregation and a retired professor of chemistry at Youngstown State University.