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426 | A New Light
The Gemara (ibid.) states that the urge to sleep is dangerous and
must be handled with great care. The baraita says:
The sages placed a fence around their words [that ma’ariv should
be recited before midnight], so that a person will not come from
the field in the evening and say, “I will go home and eat a little and
drink a little and sleep a little, and afterwards I will recite the Sh’ma
and pray,” and in the meantime sleep will seize him and he will sleep
the entire night [and miss ma’ariv altogether]. Instead, a person
who comes from the field in the evening enters the synagogue.
If he is accustomed to learn Scripture, he learns Scripture. If he
is accustomed to learn Mishnah, he learns Mishnah. And then he
recites the Sh’ma and prays, he eats his bread and recites the grace
after meals. And whoever transgresses the words of the sages
is deserving of death.
The Gemara asks: Why did the sages say that such a person “is
deserving of death,” an expression they do not use in any other
instance? The Gemara answers, “Because sleep overwhelms a
person.” Rashi explains: “A circumstance that compels a person to
transgress the words of the sages requires especial warning.” Sleep
attacks, overwhelms and seizes a person.
Sweet but Dangerous
Some people go to bed with a religious book in order to fall
asleep in the midst of learning Torah. Others engage in hitbodedut
in order to fall asleep in the midst of praying to Hashem. These
appear to be wonderful and sweet practices. But you must know
that this too is the counsel of the evil inclination, because the war
of sleep is a tremendous endeavor. If a person does not fight to the
end and pray solely regarding sleep, he will not cling to Hashem
while he sleeps.
The evil inclination is prepared to let a person fall asleep in the
midst of learning Torah or engaging in hitbodedut, because then
this person is very liable not to experience a holy sleep. Why?
Because a person who goes to sleep in the middle of learning or
praying begins to doze off and slowly loses his mindfulness, and
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It is proper for every person who is heaven-fearing and
for everyone whose heart has been touched by Hashem to
rise at midnight and engage in some lamentation, reciting
the psalm, “By the rivers of Babylon” (Psalms 137:1), and
the like, regarding the Destruction of the Temple and the
exile of the Shechinah…. And it is known that the Zohar
highly praises this practice, and the Gemara states that
midnight is a time of favor.
Following that, he writes that a person who does not rise at
midnight but rises before dawn possesses “an intermediary trait.”
That is to say, the most praiseworthy level is to get up at midnight,
and an intermediary level is to get up before dawn. From this, we
may infer that a person who gets up later than that is even less than
intermediary.
Our rabbis have discussed at length the virtue of rising at midnight
to learn Torah and engage in songs and praises. In particular, in a
great many places the holy Zohar praises and endorses the practice
of rising at midnight and extols the value of this holy time, speaking
of it as a time of favor for every holy matter. The words of our holy
rabbis inspired the hearts of worthy Jews in all generations to rise at
midnight and to engage in Divine service, each in accordance with
his own understanding. The greatest of all was Rabbi Nachman of
Breslov, who declared “that the essence of the work of a Jew is to
get up at midnight” (Sichot Haran 301).
The holy Zohar tells (Vayikra 13a):
Rabbi Chizkiah was sitting before Rabbi Yitzchak. They
arose at midnight to engage in Torah learning. Rabbi
Yitzchak began and said:
The verse states, “Behold, bless Hashem, all those who
serve Hashem, those who stand in the house of Hashem
in the nights” (Psalms 134:1). This praises all people who
have faith. And who are those who have faith? Those
are the people who engage in Torah learning and who