בלילה ההוא נדדה שנת המלך
“On that night, the sleep of the king was disturbed.” (Esther 6:1)
The Gemara in Megillah (19a) quotes the opinion of Rav Shimon bar Yochai, who maintains that when we publicly read the Megillah on Purim, we should begin from the pasuk that records Achashveirosh’s inability to sleep on one fateful night, as this represents the turning point of the Megillah, when Mordechai and Esther’s fortunes begin to overtake Haman’s.
The Megillah records that Achashveirosh’s sleepless night occurred: בלילה ההוא – “on that night”, which implies that it happened on some well-known night. Rashi writes (Megillah 16a) that this night was the 16th Nissan, the second night of Pesach. Why did the turning point of the Megillah specifically take place at this time? Pesach is a time of redemption for the Jewish people. The night of the 15th Nissan is well-known as a time when numerous miracles happened throughout Jewish history, as recorded in the piyut, ואמרתם זבח פסח, that we say at the end of the seder. If so, why didn’t the critical miracle of Purim also happen on the 15th of Nissan instead of on the following night?
Rav Dovid Feinstein zt”l explains that the 16th of Nissan is not Yom Tov in Eretz Yisroel. Only outside Eretz Yisroel, in Chutz La’aretz where Jews in exile observe two days of Yom Tov, is this day also considered Yom Tov. In essence, the second day of Yom Tov perfectly symbolizes the concept of Hashem appearing to hide His face from us by reminding us that we are in exile. Because one of the central themes of the Megillah is hester ponim [Hashem’s concealed face], the most appropriate time for the pivotal miracle to occur is on the “hidden” night of Pesach: the 16th of Nissan, which is only a Yom Tov for a person who is in exile and unable to experience Hashem’s revealed hashgochah [divine providence].
