This Monday evening, we begin the holiday of Purim. That night, we read the Megillah of Esther. The story of Purim. This gives us a picture of the historical realities of the time and a greater understanding of why we celebrate the holiday. The wicked Haman manipulated the great Persian Empire into threatening the destruction of the Jewish people. Then, thanks to the wise and heroic efforts of Mordecai and Esther, the Jewish people were saved from destruction.
But then, when the sun rises on Tuesday morning (Purim day), we read the Megillah again. The same exact story. A second time. Less than 24 hours after we just read it. Why?
Were our Sages concerned that we would forget the story so quickly? On Passover, we have a similar mitzvah to say over the story of the Exodus from Egypt. But there, we only have a mitzvah to say the story once.1 Why should the Purim story require more repetition than the Passover story?
The Sfas Emes points out that the wording of our Sages2 is actually different for the two readings. Our Sages say “לקרות” to read the Megillah at night, but they say “ולשנותה” to repeat the Megillah by day. He derives from the fact that they didn’t just say “read day and night” that the two readings each have their own unique character. He further suggests that the day reading is the primary reading and the night reading is there to support the day reading.
But how can the second reading be the main one? The first time you read a story, you get the main ideas. Maybe you can see deeper ideas the second time, but surely we would identify the second reading as supporting the first then, wouldn’t we?
To answer this, we have to look more carefully at the story itself. A surface read of the Megillah of Esther makes it sound almost like a secular historical text. An exciting account full of political intrigue and deadly machinations, to be sure, but far from a religious book. The story is unique among the books of the Bible in that it is the only one to not mention the name of G-d even a single time. So the first time we hear the story, we get this surface level understanding of events. We may come away thankful that we survived, but gain no more profound appreciation than that.
However, once we have seen the plot points all the way through once and know how everything will eventually unfold, a closer look on the second read gives us deeper insights. Details that seemed extraneous when we first saw them, like King Achashverus killing Queen Vashti or Mordecai foiling an assassination attempt, are clearly set ups so our heroes can end up where they need to be to save the day in the end. So many details pop out as glaringly convenient, that it becomes clear that there was some Higher Power who orchestrated this whole thing from the get go.
In other words, the second read is when we find G-d in the Megillah.
The details where we notice G-d winking at us between the lines IS the primary part of the story, not the simple story beats we grasped on a first read.
We read the first time in the darkness, when G-d is hidden, and the second in the light of day when the fuller truth becomes revealed.
In the Passover story, G-d is screaming His involvement on every page, so we don’t need a re-read to find the holiness. The Megillah is about a different way that G-d interacts with us sometimes. A quieter, more hidden way, that requires review to uncover.
Don’t settle for a surface understanding of the world this Purim. Give everything a second look and find the Conductor of All hiding between the lines of the world around you.
Good Shabbos and Freilikin Purim!
Rabbi A and the JET Team
- Admittedly, outside of Israel, we say it on both the first and second nights, but that’s only because we aren’t sure which night is the real Passover. Each day only has one reading of the story, while people who are obligated to keep two days of Purim out of doubt [like in Prague], read the Megillah twice each day for four total readings. Meanwhile, in Israel itself, they only tell the Passover story once because there is no doubt and it’s clear the original mitzvah is to say the story one time. ↩︎
- Talmud Bavli – Megillah 4a ↩︎
