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is to reconnect oneself to Hashem. The ultimate truth is that a body, on the other hand it removes his intellect and one of them to sleep, eating, drinking and the like, but he should
person who is connected to Hashem 24 hours a day does not need weakens his soul. And so his gain is undermined by his devote them to learning Torah and words of wisdom. The sages
to sleep at all. A few times, Moses did not sleep for 40 consecutive loss, because if his intellect is not present, he cannot said that the song of Torah exists only at night. As the verse states,
days and nights. The absolute truth is that everything that connects make use of any light to complete his rectification, and ‘Arise, sing at night’ (Lamentations 2:19). Also, when a person learns
you to Hashem—faith, Torah, prayer, kindness—gives you life. so he proceeds in darkness, without illumination. As we Torah at night, a thread of kindness is extended over him during
see naturally occurring, a person who loves to sleep the day. Thus, the verse states, ‘By day Hashem will command His
The Principal Bond will be befuddled and stupefied throughout the kindness, and at night His song is with me, a prayer to the God of

day, and he will not know how to engage in his my life’ (Psalms 4:9). And fire will consume every house in which
words of Torah are not heard at night.” These words are stated as
Prayer gives a person more life than do most mitzvot. As affairs properly and correctly, because the absence of
Rabbi Nachman says, “Know that the essence of binding oneself intellect disconcerts his mind, and that disconcerting of the halachah in the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh Deah 246). Since this is
to and clinging to Hashem, may He be blessed, is by means of the halachah, that means that everyone has the ability to conduct
prayer” (Likutei Moharan 94). Therefore, we may understand Rabbi his mind leads to inadequacy in all of his affairs…. himself in this manner, if only he wants to.
Nachman’s statement that “we receive the essence of life from
prayer” (ibid. 9). Rabbi Nachman says that when a person invests It Does No Harm at All Making up Hours
all of his energies in prayer, they are renewed. Using simple logic,
we might have thought that a person who uses all of his energy Another reason that the Torah is acquired through little sleep The Gemara tells that Rav Chisda would sit and learn long hours
in praying will lose it, because he will expend it until it is gone. is that in general a person sleeps much more than he needs to, without going to sleep. His daughter once asked him: “Don’t you
But Rabbi Nachman tells us that, on the contrary, such a person’s and in that way he loses hours of Torah learning. One of the evil want to sleep a little?” He told her: “In a little while, [after I leave
energy is renewed by faith and prayer, and not by sleep. That inclination’s ways of casting a person down is to clothe itself in this world,] I will have much time to sleep and little time to learn
is the meaning of the verse, “New in the mornings, vast is Your mitzvot and cause him to mistakenly think that sleep is something Torah. Therefore, now that I can learn Torah, I do not have time
faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:23). If you want energy, pray more very healthful and useful, and that he performs a great mitzvah by to sleep, and I will make up my hours of sleep in the grave” (Eiruvin
strongly and insert more energy into faith. Then all of your energy sleeping a great deal, and that the more he sleeps, the stronger 65a).
will be renewed, and you will see that when you finish your prayer, and more focused he will be. As I have explained at length, this
you are at least as refreshed as if you had slept for a few hours, and is tremendous heresy and error. In addition, it is also a coarse There is an excellent saying: “If a person makes his bed like a
much more than that. falsehood regarding the health of the body. On the contrary, much grave, his grave will be like a bed. But if his bed is a bed, then his
sleep is detrimental. As the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch states (32): grave will be a grave.” That is to say, if a person sees his bed as a
These are things that I myself have seen many times. Allow me “Much sleep is harmful. It causes a person’s head to be filled with grave and flees from it as one flees death, he will attain true life,
to tell one story of many that I witnessed. Before evening prayers, [unhealthy] vapors. That is because [by oversleeping] he increases and afterwards, when he lies in the grave, he will have no reason to
a tzaddik whom I knew was standing looking very tired, literally the smoke that rises from the belly to the brain. That fills the head fear harmful forces, and he will truly attain proper rest. But if he
without any energy, so much so that I thought that he was going with smoke, and it causes great damage to the body.” thinks that his bed is the place of his ultimate tranquility, afterwards
to fall off his feet. But he took hold of himself to pray, and he did in the grave he will necessarily suffer a great deal. And it is told
so with energy, crying out to Hashem. When the prayers were over There is a scientific book on sleep that cites studies showing that that when Rabbi Zusia would wake up he would immediately tell
and I looked at him, I saw a new man, as though he had just woken a person can habituate himself little by little to sleep much less and himself: “Zusia, Zusia, you have slept enough. You will make it up
up. I asked him about this great change, and he told me that he still function properly, because the body gets accustomed to that. in the grave.”
had indeed been very tired, but now, after having prayed, he felt as It is told that Napoleon slept very little, and he would say that a
though he had awoken from a few hours’ sleep and was thoroughly person who sleeps more is a fool. Thus, sleeping little does not Good Night
alert. And that is because by praying he clung to Hashem, and harm a person at all, because his body easily gets used to function
Hashem revived him and renewed all his energy. well with little sleep. He will gain additional hours for learning and A verse in Psalms (127:2) states, “He gives his beloved one
gain additional hours of life. sleep.” This is the only place in Tanach in which the word “sleep”—