On this day, King Hezekiah, the greatest of all the Judeaen kings, fell seriously ill, and was informed by the Prophet Isaiah that he would die, for G-d was displeased with the fact that Hezekiah had never married.
Hezekiah had refused to get married because he had prophetically foreseen that his children would lead the Jewish people to sin. He erred, for it is man's job to heed the commandment of procreating, and the rest is in the hands of G-d.
Hezekiah asked the prophet to pray on his behalf, but he refused, insisting that the Heavenly decree was final. The king asked the prophet to leave, saying that he had a tradition from his ancestors that one should never despair, even if a sharp sword is drawn across one's throat. The king prayed to G-d, and his prayer was accepted. G-d sent Isaiah to tell him that he would recover and that his life would be extended for fifteen years. Hezekiah recovered three days later, on the first day of Passover.
The King later married Prophet Isaiah's daughter.
Links:
Hezekiah's Last Years of Reign
The story in Kings II with commentary
More about King Hezekiah
A year following the building of the second Temple in Jerusalem (see Jewish History for the 3rd of Adar) Ezra gathered many of the Jews who had remained in Babylon and began a journey to the land of Israel. Though he certainly wanted to go earlier, his teacher, Baruch ben Neriah was too frail to travel, and Ezra refused to leave him until his passing.
Ezra was the head of the Sanhedrin, who all traveled together with him.
On the 12th of Nissan, Ezra departed from the river of Ahava, the beginning of the long journey to the land of Israel which would last for nearly five months (see Jewish history for the 1st of Av).
In today's "Nasi" reading (see "Nasi of the Day" in Nissan 1), we read of the gift bought by the nasi of the tribe of Naftali, Achira ben Enan, for the inauguration of the Mishkan.
“Nothing G‑d creates is for nothing. If not for the frogs, how would G‑d have taken retribution on the Egyptians?” (Midrash)
Now, this is a strange statement. Why should G‑d need frogs, of all creatures, to deal with Ancient Egypt? He's G-d. He has no shortage of means to accomplish His ends.
The answer: Because, to Pharaoh, the whole world was a frog.
Pharaoh was not like Bilam. Bilam understood there was one great G‑d. Only that he imagined that there were little gods, too. Such as himself.
Neither was Pharaoh like Sancherib, King of Assyria. Sancherib denied G‑d’s existence altogether. He perched himself upon a throne as the supreme deity and scoffed at the notion of any entity being greater than him. (Ezekiel 28:2)
But to Pharaoh, the existence of G‑d was simply irrelevant. He had a nation to run, business to take care of, and this "Let my people go that they may serve Me" annoyance was getting in the way.
The heavens belong to the gods, or maybe even one G‑d. But business is business.
Today, we call that a secularist, a kind of agnostic.
The secularist has no problem with the possible existence of G‑d. The atheist vehemently denies it—and thereby makes himself his own god. Yet, in a way, the secularist sits on a lower plane than the atheist.
At least the atheist has a relationship—albeit a negative one—with something beyond himself. At least he finds it necessary to oppose it.
But this utter coldness of Pharaoh, this notion that he lives in a world that’s “just here,” and that G‑d and all this spiritual business has nothing to do with life on Planet Earth—with him, how can you even start a conversation?
For him, the entire world is a frog.
Why a frog? Some plagues involved domesticated animals that serve their master. Others involved vicious beasts that endanger human beings. But the frog is a seemingly benign creature that neither harms nor services anyone, a creature that appears to be “just here,” without any apparent purpose.
That’s why G-d’s first cure for Pharaoh's coldness was to enlist the frogs to perform a miracle
To demonstrate that, in truth, there is absolutely nothing in this world without divine meaning, nothing that is not intimately wrapped up with G-d’s light. That everything in G-d's world burns with divine purpose.
Even the cold, benign frog.