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438 | A New Light
of these harmful forces, and as a result his soul can rise to a state
of holiness and attain its rectification. The holy Zohar (Balak) states:
Every night, when a person follows the laws of his Master, before
he lies on his bed he kills 1,125 of the evil spirits that are with him.
Rabbi Abba said: A thousand are from the left side. As the verse
states: “A thousand will fall from your [left] side” (Psalms 91:7). As
the verse states, ‘The pious will rejoice with glory…. The praises of
God are in their throats … to wreak vengeance…’ (Psalms 149:5-7).
As the verse states, ‘He will not lie down until he eats the prey…’
(Numbers 23:24)—in order ‘to do judgment with them” (Psalms
149:9).
The holy Ari states in Sha’ar Hakavanot that when a person
recites the Sh’ma he must have two aims in mind: to kill the unclean
bodies that were created from his blemishes, and to restore those
souls to their place in holiness so that they will be rectified there
and afterwards come to this world like all other souls. It is very
important to say all 248 words of the Sh’ma, because they are
made into a spear that kills all of the harmful forces and unclean
bodies (the Hebrew word for “spear”—romach—is composed of
the same letters as the number 248—ramach).
If a person goes to sleep accepting the yoke of the kingdom of
heaven and reciting the Sh’ma properly, he can attain tremendous
rectifications. But if he casts off the yoke of the kingdom of heaven,
he is in terrible danger. It is no wonder that he wakes up late and
that the entire next day is entirely askew.
No Satan and No Evil Occurrence
It is important to say and focus well on all of the verses that we
recite in the text of the Bedtime Sh’ma, all of which are very helpful
to attain protection and every sort of rectification—in particular, in
order to yearn at the time of sleep, which is the essential service of
Hashem associated with sleep.
The Shulchan Aruch (239) states that before a person goes
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We must stand at night, and in this way prevent the evil inclination
of sleep from seizing us.
In general, we must know that a person requires great alacrity
in rising in the morning, because “sleep casts down the lazy”
(Proverbs 19:15). And Rabbi Moshe Dovid Valli says that “supernal
providence does not help lazy people. But when people wake up
to do their work with alacrity, they are helped and they succeed.”
And he also says: “Laziness is considered equivalent to wickedness.
As the verse states, ‘A person who is careless in his work is a
brother to a destructive person’ (Proverbs 18:9).” And Sefer
Hamidot states, “With alacrity, a person removes sleep and revives
his mind” (Atzlut).
Advice on How to Get Up in the Morning
A person should sleep without a wristwatch, or at any rate only
look at his watch after he has gotten up from bed, or at least until
after he has washed his hands. That is because, when a person
wakes up and sees the time, his evil inclination immediately tells
him: “It is still very early, you still have time…,” and since his mind
is foggy, he is easily persuaded. That is totally the work of the evil
inclination.
All of a person’s thoughts when he first gets up—“I’m tired, I
don’t know if I slept enough…” and the like—are heretical thoughts
(as I have already explained). Remember this well: these are
dangerous thoughts that wish to shorten your life, in the simplest
sense. If you are tired, get up with alacrity and bind yourself to
Hashem. That will awaken you and give you life. At the moment
that you are being tested, it is very hard to understand that all of
those thoughts are one great lie. But if you prepare yourself, remain
aware and seek counsel on how to act, then at the moment that
you are tested you will prevail and get up.
Also, if a person decides that he will get out of bed whatever time
it may be when he wakes up (since he is not wearing a watch), he
may sometimes find himself waking up an hour or two early, and
so he will earn another few hours of night, which are worth much