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would not need to sleep at all, and certainly he would not want to be recited before learning Torah and before drinking wine—on
to sleep at all. Purim and the four cups on the Seder night—asking Hashem to
help us attain the level of meriting and to be saved from the level of
Second: the purpose of man is to attain faith. That refers not not meriting. Regarding sleep as well, when a person realizes that he
only to a general faith that there is a Creator of the world, because can either merit or fail to merit, he will pray and plead a great deal
such faith has no connection to life. Rather, complete faith is faith to merit, because he feels that his entire life is hanging precariously
in which a person sees, feels and experiences the Creator at every in the balance. A person must arouse himself to sense the danger
moment. Thus, complete faith is absolute clinging to Hashem. inherent in sleep. When he approaches sleep in that way, he will see
Every disengagement of the mind from Hashem and every forgetting results. If he will ready himself, prepare his heart with long prayer
of Hashem is a disconnection from life, and that creates tiredness. and cry out to Hashem to save him from danger, to rescue him
Every removal of one’s awareness from Hashem is spiritual death from the failure to merit, he will attain all of the good qualities and
and spiritual sleep. This is a terrible and awful thing. If a person influences of holy sleep.
would cling to Hashem entirely and not remove his awareness from
Hashem for even a moment, he would not need to sleep at all. At Incidentally, you should know that regarding almost everything in
most, he would sleep a few minutes a day. That is because, when life a person can either merit or not merit. Therefore, it is strongly
a person is absorbed in faith and clings to Hashem in an absolute advised that a person accustom himself to prepare himself for
manner, there is an aspect of rectification and spirituality to his everything he faces by praying at length to Hashem to illumine
sleep. him and teach him how to serve Him in all things, and how to
merit and avoid not meriting. As for sleep, preparation is especially
Rabbi Yitzchak, the son of Rabbi Natan of Breslov, would write important, because (as was already stated and will be discussed
his father letters in which he would cry out bitterly about his further on in this chapter) very great and tremendous matters—
tremendous distance from Hashem and about his terrible sins. His literally matters of life and death—depend on sleep!
father wrote him back an entire book of letters and encouragement
called Alim Letrufah, which to this day is the most encouraging Preparation
book in the world. A reader of this book is liable to think to himself:
“What did Rabbi Yitzchak do that caused him to cry and call out? Many people, both men and women, come to me brokenhearted
Is he broken because he transgressed the Torah, desecrated the and depressed because they are agitated and distressed by
Sabbath, or ate unkosher food? He is a decent person. Why is he
so upset?” troublesome dreams. In addition, men can experience nocturnal
emissions as a result of bad dreams. These people seek a solution
Rabbi Nachman of Tsheherin was one of the greatest students for their problem. Also, it is very common that people do not get
of Rabbi Natan and a tremendous Torah sage in his own right. He up on time. They are upset by that, and this affects their entire
assembled and arranged these letters and brought them to print. He lives. These people have not merited in the area of sleep.
knew Rabbi Yitzchak personally and he knew the background of the The solution is simply to know what the work of preparation for
letters. In his introduction to Alim Letrufah he tells a little of Rabbi sleep is: what sleep is, and how one should go to sleep. As stated
Yitzchak’s good qualities. He describes Rabbi Yitzchak as a simple earlier, in sleep a person’s soul rises and clings to a supernal spiritual
and upright man who spent his entire life serving Hashem, who
earned a living, possessed good character traits, was honest, and level. If the person merits, his soul clings to the world-to-come and
rises to learn Torah with the tzaddikim and attain insights. If not,
so forth. That being the case, why was Rabbi Yitzchak so dismayed
at himself? Rabbi Nachman of Tsheherin writes that because of