Purim: When G-d Wakes Up

The Megillah tells the story of King Ahasuerus, who could not sleep in the middle of the night. He asked his servants to read the palace chronicles to him, and they read about Mordechai saving the king’s life. He immediately ordered Haman to reward Mordechai by parading him through the streets of the capital city, Shushan, proclaiming that this is a man the king seeks to honor.

This was the beginning of the miracle that led to the Jews’ salvation from Haman’s decree of annihilation. Our sages (Megillah 19a) didn’t call it the beginning of the miracle; they called it the most potent part of the miracle. This is curious. What was so miraculous about the king’s disturbed sleep?

Our sages (Midrash, Yalkut Shimoni 857) taught that when the Megillah speaks of the king, it refers to two kings: the terrestrial Persian king Ahasuerus and the celestial king, G-d. This is because kingship truly belongs to G-d, and He bestowed it on human kings. Therefore, what happens to a human king reflects what happens to G-d. In other words, G-d’s sleep was disturbed, and this is the miracle.

This is even more confusing. Firstly, does G-d sleep? The entire concept of fatigue doesn’t apply to G-d. The Psalmist (121:4) wrote, “He neither slumbers nor sleeps.” Moreover, if G-d chose to sleep, what would wake Him? He is in ultimate control of His choices. How might He be unable to sleep?

Withdrawal

Think about what happens when you sleep. Your body’s basic organs continue to function. Your lungs, kidneys, liver, and digestive system all do their job. Your brain is hard at work regulating your body’s complex systems, but your inner faculties are at rest. You can’t contemplate or even think, you can’t discern or distinguish, you can’t see or hear.

Moreover, you lack intelligent seeing and hearing. When someone tells you something, and you say, “I hear” or “I see,” you mean that you hear his point. You can discern the distinctions between her point and yours. You can see right from wrong. When we sleep, the only part of our brain that functions is our imagination, which has no discernment. It can show us things that make no sense, and we accept it as perfectly logical.

You can see yourself in Hong Kong in your dream while events unfold in New York before your eyes, and you accept it at face value. You can be punished for good deeds and rewarded for evil deeds, which makes perfect sense in a dream. This is worse than having no brain. It is having a brain that misleads us, and we can’t correct it. That is the definition of sleep.

Divine Sleep

When we say G-d is asleep, we mean that He conducts the affairs of life in ways that make no sense to us. Good people suffer, and wicked people prosper. His children are abandoned. His enemies are exalted. Terrorists are seen as noble freedom fighters, and the most ethical army in the world is accused of genocide. Does that sound familiar? G-d is behaving as if He is asleep.

What causes G-d to behave this way? The answer is that G-d treats us as we treat Him (Sotah 8b; Sanhedrin 90a). The Psalmist (121:5) wrote that G-d cleaves to us like a shadow. As a shadow mimics our movements, so does G-d copy our behavior. If we are joyful, He is joyful. If we govern our lives by what He wants, He governs our lives by what we want. ( Kesser Shem Tov 78; Zohar I p, 184b)

When we stop discerning between right and wrong, holy and profane, when we start believing that Shabbat is just like Sunday and ham is just like brisket, G-d returns the favor. When we neglect our children in favor of our hobbies, G-d neglects His children. When we allow ourselves to be triggered by another’s insults, G-d withdraws from us and shows us His wrath. He treats us as we treat Him.

When we say that G-d was asleep at the wheel when Haman issued his decree, we mean that G-d allowed the wicked Haman to prevail over His children. He even made it seem like it made sense. The king of Persia gave it his stamp of approval. It was like G-d was asleep, and the world was in dream mode.

The question is, what disturbed G-d’s sleep? Our sages called it a mighty miracle; what was it?

Moment of Truth

Think about what you do when caught up in a nightmare too hard to handle. You are petrified, the bullets are flying, the threat seems real, and you start sweating, tossing, and turning in real life. You might even cry out. How do you free yourself from this terror?

Unless we have a clinical problem that requires psychiatric treatment, we have an emergency “stop” button that we can push. At some point, we can pull ourselves out of the nightmare, remember who we are, where we are, and that we are asleep. At this point, we can choose to pull ourselves from the dream.

Most of us can pull ourselves out deliberately when we need to. The stress and anxiety build up disturbing our sleep just enough for us to recognize that we are asleep. Then, we remember who we are and pull ourselves out.

This is incredible because we are still asleep. We can realize while still sleeping that we are asleep. When the nightmare reaches its strongest point and has us in its strongest grip, then, and only then, do we gain the capacity to pull ourselves out. It doesn’t mean we will or do, just that we can.

The same applies in real life. No matter how far we stray from our Jewish identity, no matter how assimilated we become, we can remember who we are. The quintessential Jewish point within us awakens, and we suddenly remember that this lifestyle is not us. We are living someone else’s life.

The miraculous thing about it is that this occurs when we are at our lowest ebb. For example, when someone invites us to turn on our fellow Jews or pressures us to abandon Judaism and convert to another faith, that is when we have the awakening moment that reminds us who we are.

This is like an alcoholic who only finds the strength to pull out when he or she his bottom. In the bleakest moment of weakness, a light bulb goes off in our minds, and we regain control. We remember who we are and what we are doing and suddenly find the strength to pull back.

That is the miracle. Not just that we find ourselves but that we find ourselves at the most surprising time. That is what happened to the Jews in Shushan. When Haman issued his decree, the assimilated Jews of Shushan all decided to march to their deaths as Jews. They woke up from the dream that they could assimilate among the Persians and remembered who they were. At that moment, G-d replied in concert and awakened from His sleep. That is a great miracle.

Since October 7th, Jews around the world have awakened to the truth that we are a nation that stands alone—not alone, separated from G-d, but alone, separated from the nations. As they turned against us, we turned to our heritage for solace and strength. We sought to embrace our relationship with G-d.

May G-d’s sleep be disturbed, and may He bring us protection and salvation with the coming of Mashiach speedily in our days. Amen.[1]

[1] This essay is based on Sefer Hamaamarim 5700, p. 5.