The Night the King Woke Up…

"On that night the king's sleep was disturbed…" Taken literally this verse refers to King Achashverosh. But the Midrash explains a deeper dimension: "The sleep of the King of the universe was disturbed" - G-d Himself "woke up."

The Talmud tells us: "The way a person acts is the way G-d treats him." When Haman slandered the Jews, he said “Yeshno - There exists a nation…" alluding to the Hebrew “Yashnu - that has fallen asleep." The Jews at the time of Achashverosh were “asleep” - indifferent to G-d and His Torah. Therefore, Haman schemed, when the Jews are indifferent to G-d, then G-d, too, will be indifferent to them.

Here lies the Purim miracle. G-d transcended the strict order of justice, ignoring the facts as they were, and He “woke up.” The sound of the Jewish children studying Torah with Mordechai - despite the ominous decree that loomed over them - allowed for G-d to ignore all arguments, and to wake up and redeem His people, setting in motion a complete reversal of the Jews' material and spiritual circumstance - bringing them "light, joy, gladness and glory" and a renewed vitality and devotion to Torah and Mitzvos.