The decay rate for a black hole to decay nonperturbatively via tunneling is shown to be related to the Bekenstein-Hawking black hole entropy S_bh. This new physical interpretation of the black hole entropy was presented first in 1988 in this paper. I quote here the relevant statement: "It should be noticed that the decay rate of a black hole due to nonperturbative instability is proportional to (-S_bh, where S_bh is the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. This seems to indicate that the

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... ng entropy is the measure of the ability of a black hole to disappear from our Universe in the one quantum jump, with the simultaneous production of particles carrying away its total energy."