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Hasidic books explain that this means that a person must strengthen an important principle may be derived: that going to sleep is not times (as written in the previous chapter). He must cry out and
himself at the end of a period. When we strengthen ourselves at the throwing off the yoke of Hashem but the service of Hashem. And call out to Hashem to guard him and rescue him from his greatest
end of the day, at the end of the week, at the end of the month and we must truly intend that and feel it. enemy, which wants to uproot him from both worlds. And he
at the end of the year, we can rectify our entire past. must repeat that another few times: once on behalf of his wife and
That is a halachah in the Shulchan Aruch that is relevant to a separate instance on behalf of each of his children. And when
The elevated time of lying down is the opportunity to stop the every Jew. Even a Jew on the lowest level must intend to serve his he recites hamapil, he should also have in mind that he is asking
cycle of spiritual sleep and instead go to sleep in the midst of Creator in sleep. And that can be accomplished only by a person Hashem to keep the evil inclination of sleep from overcoming him
wonderful inspiration that will continue when you wake up and who engages in the work of the will and experiences yearning at the and seizing him.
throughout the next day. The ten minutes that you invest now will time of sleep.
entirely transform the quality of your sleep, and your entire day To Learn from Experience
afterwards will be filled with holy life. But if you are subjugated to Those Who Make a Personal Accounting
the evil inclination and “gain” ten minutes of sleep at the expense A basic point in preparing for sleep that I have learned from my
of your fear of heaven, you will pay for that dearly, because you The holy books teach that there is a tremendous usefulness in own experience and from the experience of many others is that it
will lose both the entire previous day and the entire coming day. making a personal accounting before sleep. As the holy Zohar is vitally important to engage in the entire order of preparing for
teaches (Vayeshev 191): sleep while standing up, because when a person sits down, he is in
If a person allows sleep to control him and seize him, he is
volitionally depositing his spirit in the hands of the evil inclination Rabbi Yossi said “… A person must examine his sins danger of being “seized.” Thus, the Ari states that it is preferable
instead of depositing it in Hashem’s hand. It is no wonder that the that a person stand during the entire order of the Bedtime Sh’ma.
manacles of the evil inclination will shackle him the entire next day. every single day….” Every day, when night arrives, a Also, if a person wants to learn a little before going to sleep, he
He has been seized and imprisoned. person must contemplate and examine everything that should do that standing up as well, since this is a perilous time. As
he did that entire day, so that he will repent of [his Rashi explains (Berachot 4b), sleep attacks a person and overwhelms
Prepare Yourself wrong deeds] and gaze at them always. In that way, he his will. Similarly, when a person gets up in the morning, he must
remain standing until he leaves the house. Sometimes the evil
will do teshuvah before his Master. As the verse states, inclination tells him to sit down for just a minute or two, and he
First of all, you must prepare yourself practically. Start by placing “My sin is before me always” (Psalms 51:5)—meaning, in falls asleep and finds himself awakening after an hour. Sitting is
a cup with which to wash your hands next to your bed. As the order for me to do teshuvah over them. dangerous, whether before or after sleep. Therefore, we must place
introduction to the holy Zohar (10b) states, the early pietists would fences around the topic of sleep.
place a cup next to their beds so that they could wash their hands And the Zohar also teaches (Korach 178):
as soon as they woke up: When a person is engaged in serving Hashem and sleep overcomes
A person who engages in a personal accounting [will him, he must be as mighty as a lion to stand and not sit, because
When the early pietists went to sleep, they would put a be saved from Gehennom. The sages] taught that every if he sits he is in danger of being seized by sleep. Therefore, on
cup of water next to their beds. When they awoke from night, before a person lies down to go to sleep, he must the eve of Yom Kippur, the young cohanim would tell the cohen
their sleep at night, they would wash their hands, and make an accounting of his deeds of that entire day. He gadol: “My master the cohen gadol, stand and cool [your feet] on
get up and engage in Torah, reciting the blessing over must do teshuvah for [his wrong deeds] and beseech the [marble] floor,” so that the cold would wake him up (Yoma
that learning…. That is because, when a person sleeps, Hashem to have compassion and forgive him. Why do 1:7). I knew a great tzaddik in Jerusalem whom no one ever saw
his spirit leaves him. And when his spirit leaves him, the we engage in a personal accounting at that time? Because sitting. Because he would sleep very little in the evening and rise at
spirit of uncleanness is ready and rests on his hands and at that time the Tree of Death is in the world—[i.e., the midnight, he knew that if he would sit down he would fall asleep—
and so he always stood. Related to that, the verse speaks of “those
pollutes them. And it is forbidden to recite a blessing powers of uncleanness rise in strength]—and everyone who stand in the house of Hashem in the nights” (Psalms 134:1).
with unclean hands, without washing. in the world tastes the taste of death in his sleep.