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dirt, deep in the mud of useless things. Will you still not properly about his purpose. But the Sabbath, which is a taste of
do teshuvah? You are still mistreating your soul and not the world-to-come, is entirely geared to helping a person reach his
setting it free to return to do teshuvah and follow the will goal—and that is an awakening from sleep.
of your Maker and Creator, which is all of your soul’s
Therefore, at the beginning the Sabbath, we say in Lecha Dodi,
yearning, longing, and all of its strong and tremendous “Arise from the dust…, awaken, awaken… awake, awake.” And on
desire. (Likutei Tefillot 60) the Sabbath we sing many melodies that correspond to awakening
from sleep—“awaken, awaken, sing forth”—filled with desires
Please, compassionate Father, see how impoverished I and yearnings for Hashem. As Rabbi Natan states, “The Sabbath
am in every area that I have spoken about to You. Please corresponds to awakening from sleep” (Likutei Halachot: Yein Nesech
see how impoverished my knowledge is, and how far I am 2:3; see there his lengthy discussion). And he also teaches that eating on
from clinging to You, from intent and from faith. Please the Sabbath corresponds to awakening from sleep (ibid., Shabbat 1).
see the tremendous dangers I face in unholy sleep. Fight Therefore, on the holy Sabbath Breslov Hasidim have the custom of
on my behalf, favor me with Your undeserved kindness learning Rabbi Nachman’s holy tales, which also have the property
and completely nullify all of my craving and desire to of arousing a person from sleep (as mentioned above).
sleep. May my entire will be only to cling to You from
now on and forever, amen selah. It is known that many tzaddikim would not sleep at all on the
Sabbath. Many tzaddikim used to say that we keep the Sabbath—in
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my Hebrew, “guard the Sabbath”—in the same way that a guard is
heart be acceptable to You, Hashem, my Rock and my forbidden to go to sleep. In particular, on Friday night, when a
great thirst for Hashem is aroused, the time is very favorable for
Redeemer. clinging to Hashem (Sod Sarfei Kodesh II 80 and IV 513), and it is a
great pity to lose this wonderful light by sleeping for many hours. 17
The Work of the Will before You Go to Sleep It is known that the holy Ari would sleep on the Sabbath day. But
that is because he did not sleep at all during the night. Therefore,
As I have pointed out earlier in this chapter, the evil inclination he would sleep two or three hours during the day, during which
for sleep is absolute evil, and a person’s most difficult struggle with time he would rise to the highest spiritual levels. From here we
it occurs when he goes to bed. This is a very difficult struggle that may see that, in order to keep the mitzvah of delighting in sleep on
everything depends upon. There are two possibilities. If a person the Sabbath, it is sufficient to sleep even a small amount of time—
merits, he will cling to Hashem, to faith, to holy will, and to the day because it is no delight to incinerate half of the Sabbath in sleep,
of life. But if, heaven forbid, he does not merit, he will cling to the heaven forbid.
evil inclination, lose his faith, and magnify his delusory perceptions.
He will wake up with difficulty, and his entire day will be dark and The Holiness of Being Awake on the Sabbath
dead. Thus, a person’s choice is literally between life and death.
Sleep is death, the ultimate darkness and distance from Hashem.
That being the case, you must engage with especial intensity Nevertheless, we say that “sleep on the Sabbath is a delight.”
in the work of the will before you go to sleep (as was discussed This means that even sleep, which is deleterious and dangerous,
in Chapter Three: The New Light). At that time, you should ascends on the Sabbath. Indeed, the Ari teaches that if a person is
plead with Hashem to give you the strength to vanquish this evil impregnated with the soul of a tzaddik—i.e., the soul of a tzaddik
