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body, on the other hand it removes his intellect and one of them to sleep, eating, drinking and the like, but he should funny. It is something so pathetic that it has no equal. It means that
weakens his soul. And so his gain is undermined by his devote them to learning Torah and words of wisdom. The sages a person is living in an exceedingly deep state of falsehood.
loss, because if his intellect is not present, he cannot said that the song of Torah exists only at night. As the verse states,
make use of any light to complete his rectification, and ‘Arise, sing at night’ (Lamentations 2:19). Also, when a person learns Your attitude to sleep should be as follows: if you can sleep six
so he proceeds in darkness, without illumination. As we Torah at night, a thread of kindness is extended over him during hours and function throughout the day—one hour of sleep for
every three hours of being awake—why should you sleep more
see naturally occurring, a person who loves to sleep the day. Thus, the verse states, ‘By day Hashem will command His and lose out? The less sleep, the more blessing, significance and
kindness, and at night His song is with me, a prayer to the God of
will be befuddled and stupefied throughout the my life’ (Psalms 4:9). And fire will consume every house in which life you gain. Therefore, every person must carefully consider the
day, and he will not know how to engage in his words of Torah are not heard at night.” These words are stated as minimal amount of sleep that he needs to function properly, and
affairs properly and correctly, because the absence of the halachah in the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh Deah 246). Since this is he should engage in much prayer that during those hours he will
intellect disconcerts his mind, and that disconcerting of the halachah, that means that everyone has the ability to conduct receive everything necessary for his health and for his physical
his mind leads to inadequacy in all of his affairs…. himself in this manner, if only he wants to. and spiritual welfare, and that he should not, heaven forbid, lose
precious hours in unnecessary sleep. In its entirety, the craving
It Does No Harm at All Making up Hours for sleep is a lack of knowledge of the first order, showing that a
person lacks a purpose in life. When a person has a purpose, every
moment of life is precious to him, and his entire aspiration is to
Another reason that the Torah is acquired through little sleep The Gemara tells that Rav Chisda would sit and learn long hours
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 sleep as little as possible.
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
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 We Take an Accounting
mitzvot and cause him to mistakenly think that sleep is something Torah. Therefore, now that I can learn Torah, I do not have time
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 Even a few extra minutes of sleep constitute a major loss. If a
sleeping a great deal, and that the more he sleeps, the stronger 65a). person regularly sleeps an extra ten minutes a night, he will lose
and more focused he will be. As I have explained at length, this more than 60 hours a year. In the course of 70 years, he will lose
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 about half a year of his life: 177 entire days, which constitute
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 more than 4,200 hours—thousands of precious hours of Torah
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 and prayer, of learning with his children, of performing good deeds
“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, and mitzvot, and more. If a person sleeps an extra hour every day,
[unhealthy] vapors. That is because [by oversleeping] he increases and afterwards, when he lies in the grave, he will have no reason to he will lose three years of his life. And if he sleeps an extra two
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 hours, that will come to six years. People who sleep even more
with smoke, and it causes great damage to the body.” thinks that his bed is the place of his ultimate tranquility, afterwards than that lose decades of years. How much could a person earn
in the grave he will necessarily suffer a great deal. And it is told during those years, how much he could serve Hashem during those
There is a scientific book on sleep that cites studies showing that that when Rabbi Zusia would wake up he would immediately tell years! Oversleeping is literally suicide.
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
still function properly, because the body gets accustomed to that. in the grave.” Thus, it is clear that our attitude to sleep must be an attitude
It is told that Napoleon slept very little, and he would say that a of accepting the King’s decree. We do not need to treat sleep
person who sleeps more is a fool. Thus, sleeping little does not Good Night as a holy object that must be adorned and elaborated upon. It is
harm a person at all, because his body easily gets used to function enough for us to do what we are obligated to do. There is no point
well with little sleep. He will gain additional hours for learning and A verse in Psalms (127:2) states, “He gives his beloved one in volunteering to contribute extra hours, not even an extra few
gain additional hours of life. sleep.” This is the only place in Tanach in which the word “sleep”—