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Today is Erev Yom Kippur. Tomorrow we'll be hearing the story of Yona (Jonah) and I just wanted to take a second to talk about a thing I learned in high school about it and then spent the next bunch of years thinking about.

So Yona gets swallowed by a fish and the text saysוַיְהִ֚י יוֹנָה" בִּמְעֵ֣י הַדָּ֔ג שְׁלֹשָׁ֥ה יָמִ֖ים וּשְׁלֹשָׁ֥ה לֵילֽוֹת" (and Yona was in the bowels of the fish [masculine] for 3 days and 3 nights) and then Yona prays to G-d "מִמְּעֵ֖י הַדָּגָֽה" (from inside the fish [feminine]). The question is why the switch between male & female?

There are lots of explanations and the most common (including Rashi's) is that there were two fish. He was in a male fish and then he was spat out of that fish and immediately swallowed by a female one, which was pregnant.

But when I was in HS, I learned another explanation, unfortunately I don't remember the source, but basically: Some male fish get pregnant and that's what happened here. And once it became pregnant, it's referred to in the feminine.

There are also species of fish that change genders during the course of their lives. Yona also ends with a kal v'chomer (a fortiori). Yona is upset that the kikayon tree is destroyed & G-d says, you pity the kikayon which you did not grow. Shall I then not feel pity for the city of Ninveh?

And there's another kal v'chomer that I think is important. Tanach takes care to change the pronouns of a fish who will neither know or care if you get it right, how much more so should we all take care to respect the pronouns and names of the people around us!