Page 410 - 20780

Chapter Nine: | 415 410 | A New Light Chapter Eight: | 391

Hashem is an awakening from sleep. As the Rambam teaches: “A engaging in a great deal of prayer with the work of the will every every day. It is a pity that you do not conclude your prayer having
person is obligated to be punctilious with the mitzvah of putting up day. Nevertheless, fortunate is the person who is able to keep this received baskets filled with all good.
a mezuzah, because it is a constant, universal requirement. When teaching in its plain sense. When a person successfully nullifies his
a person enters or exits a room and is reminded of the unity of craving for sleep and wakes up at night, he will be able to implement How much thanks and praise you owe the Holy One, blessed
Hashem, the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, he will recall this teaching in its simple sense. Fortunate is he and fortunate is his be He. You have the opportunity to express so much praise and
His love, and he will awaken from his sleep and his madness portion, and he will see very swift results. thanks. With a little attention and implementation of the will,
amidst the vanities of temporary matters. He will know that you can fill those precious minutes of prayer with much more
nothing stands forever except the knowledge of the Rock of the Taking Care true, profound meaning, with much more service of Hashem and
world. And immediately he will return to his mindfulness and closeness to Hashem.
proceed upon upright ways” (Hilchot Mezuzah 6:13). Every person must realistically evaluate how many hours of sleep
he needs. A person needs to examine himself and remember clearly Do not be foolish. You have reached the treasury. Why should
A Question of Life that he should sleep only in order to fulfill his requirement to do you leave empty-handed?
so, and that every extra minute of sleep is a great loss and a type Rabbi Nachman said: “All that I am about is prayer.” Prayer is
Thus, we see that sleep is absolute evil, and that it does not give of suicide. You must be aware that six hours is enough or more the redemption and the rectification of the world. You too can be
life. Sleep is solely a decree of the King, a coercive imposition than enough for everyone. That is a generous amount of sleep. A a partner in the rectification and redemption of the world. How?
that we must perform in the right and proper manner. Rabbi Levi person should go beyond that to aspire and attempt to reduce his Only when you want—only when, while you are in the synagogue,
Yitzchak Bender, an elder of the Breslov Hasidim, used to say that amount of sleep. you do not only sit and read but you want and yearn. Then your
there is a concept of holy sleep (cf. Likutei Halachot). The question is: prayer will not be a phantom and a dead corpse, but a deep and
how do we attain holy sleep? Where do we begin? Also, regarding the hours that you do need to sleep, if you living, true prayer.
approach this in the right way—i.e., if you yearn and pray until
You must know that the central Divine service in regard to sleep you receive strength to overcome your craving for sleep (as I will Then not only will you feel great satisfaction and the pleasantness
takes place when a person is going to sleep. Everything depends on discuss at length)—you will see that the Holy One, blessed be He, of being close to Hashem, and not only will you pluck the fruits
what he wants during the minutes in which he first lies down in bed. will renew your mind in six hours, and you will wake up fresh, filled of your prayers—abundance, blessing and success in all areas—but
If he wants to cling to Hashem, he will receive holy life, mindfulness with enthusiasm and energy. Over time, as you strengthen and you will be a partner in the rectification of the world under the
and faith, and his sleep will be truly sweet, good and brief. It will sanctify yourself, you will see that you can renew your mind and sovereignty of the Almighty. You will push away the darkness and
be a holy sleep. But if he wants to sleep or to rest, heaven forbid, refresh yourself with less and less sleep. You will be able to sleep reveal Hashem’s sovereignty over the world.
he removes his mindfulness entirely and remains empty. And when much less and yet be more awake, more focused and more healthy
the pit is empty and it does not contain water, snakes and scorpions to serve Hashem. To sum up: in order for your prayer to truly be effective,
enter, and every power of uncleanness takes control of it, and that you must invest all of your intentions in the work of prayer:
affects the person the entire coming day (as will be explained). However, the following basic principle must be stated: we do in the three daily prayers, in personal prayers, and in reciting
nothing by force—“because not by force does a man grow psalms and supplications.
There exists today an extensive school of thought that focuses on mighty” (Samuel I 2:9). It is impossible to fight sleep by force, but
the importance of the “quality of sleep”—but that is the quality of only with will and prayer, only by means of the work of the will. “Gird your sword upon the thigh, warrior” (Psalms 45:3).
death. For our many sins, sleep has turned into a “pleasure” and into I knew a tzaddik who tried to fight against his sleep by force. In Your sword is the sword of prayer. As the verse states, “The
“quality time.” As I have explained at length, this is a falsehood of order to keep from dozing off, he would eat and drink many sweet lofty praises of God are in their throats and a double-edged
the first magnitude—the greatest falsehood of the evil inclination. things. In the end, he did himself a great deal of harm and grew sword in their hands” (Psalms 149:8). As Rabbi Nachman
In truth, sleep should be an absolute bond with Hashem. And the sick. If he had known of the way of prayer, he would have reached teaches (Kitzur Likutei Moharan 2): “The essential weapon of
quality of a person’s sleep depends solely on the quality of better results with much less effort, and he would have maintained a Jew is prayer.”
his yearning for and bond with the Creator before he fell his health for many years.
Arise and succeed!