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Chapter Nine:   | 493    492 | A New Light                                   17                                                     Chapter Nine:   | 485

 know, with complete and strong awareness, without any   drives gain power over him. And then he loses day after   Hashem against Amalek in every generation” (Deuteronomy
 doubt, that all tiredness is only a form of suffering, and   day,  may the Compassionate One have  mercy. Please   25:19). Every time I feel tired, may I stand and engage
 that what Hashem wants of me when I wake up tired is to   help me know with complete clarity that the greatest and   in the service of Hashem. In this way, may I receive life
 accept that suffering with love, to stand up and express   cruelest evil inclination is the evil inclination for sleep.   and strength. In this challenging war, we must stand firm
 my thanks for this suffering of exhaustion. In that way,   Rescue me and save me. Give me the strength to stand   against the great enemy and murderer, the evil inclination
 may I renew my complete faith until You will restore   firm in this battle.                 for sleep. Help me be among those who “stand in the
 my soul and mind, and I will no longer be tired, because                                    house of Hashem in the nights” (Psalms 134:1).
 only faith nullifies tiredness and gives a person strength   Master of  the universe, give  me the strength to
 and life.    overcome  sleep  and  wake  up  filled  with energy.  By                         Master of the universe, help me stay awake. Help me
              overcoming sleep, we also break our craving for money,                         chase away sleep until I break my desire for it. In this
 Help me so that my first thought on getting up in the   we nullify  all  heresy and we maintain  our faith. Help   way, may I also break the craving for money, and receive
 morning  will  be the awareness  of  the world-to-come.   me get up at such-and-such a time (here designate the   Your complete providence, from Your “seeing eye that
 May I cling anew to the world-to-come, say Modeh ani   time that you want to get up) at the very latest. And   never rests” (Zohar III 129b).
 joyfully, wash my hands next to my bed, and make all   if You want to wake me up earlier, I will be happy to
 of my preparations with great alacrity. Help me so that   get up then. Help me be aware that You are the One   Master of  the universe, help me so that I will  not
 after I have gotten up, I do not sit down, so that my   Who wakes me up. Help me get up from bed filled with   actually  invite sleep.  Sometimes I feel  that I can  stay
 evil inclination will not seize me and make me tired and   energy, without any lethargy at all, without looking at   strong for another few hours and serve Hashem in the
 then fill me with the desire to sleep. Instead, may I do   my watch, and without any heretical thought that I need   precious hours  of  the night, but  the evil inclination
 everything standing up. And help me so that while I am   to sleep more, that I haven’t slept enough, and the like.   entices me and fills me with the thought that I should
 organizing myself and I cannot say words of Torah, I will   We only receive life from You, and every thought that   go to sleep so that the next day I will have more energy
 think of You and thank You for everything without end:   pulls us to sleep is heresy. Help me not lose the precious   and not be tired. But all of that is complete falsehood,
 “Thank You for my having slept, thank You that I got   hours  between midnight  and morning.  And if I really   tremendous nonsense and heresy, because only You—
 up, thank You for my clothes and shoes, for my blanket,   need to sleep, may I make it up during the day with just   and not sleep—give a person life. When we go to sleep
 for my watch and for the water, for the washing cup and   a few minutes’ sleep.             thinking that sleep gives strength and life, that is heresy.
 for my health,” and so on.                                                                  On the contrary, if I serve You for a few hours now,
                Master of  the  universe,  help  me  wake  up early and                      I  will  have  much  more energy  tomorrow, because we
 Master of  the  universe,  You created  Your world in   flee from my bed. Untie the ropes of sleep that bind me   receive life from clinging to Hashem and from prayer.
 Your beneficent will in accordance with what arose in   to my bed, and free me from the prison of my sheets.   And if I have time to serve Hashem for a few hours now,
 Your primordial thought. You created heaven and all of   Give me awareness, so that I will not be attracted by the   it is forbidden to push that off until tomorrow—because
 its host, the earth and all that is on it. You created man   thought of lying down again. Help me know that once   who knows what tomorrow will bring, what obstacles and
 upon it, and You blew the breath of life into His nostrils   I have gotten up, even if I feel tired, I am forbidden to   distractions  to  serving  Hashem I  will then  experience?
 so that he may recognize Your greatness and splendor.   surrender to my evil inclination, which tries to exploit   And the doubtful possibilities of tomorrow do not take
 You give  life  to  all beings, because You are the  Soul   my unclear  thinking and  persuade  me  to  go  back  to   precedence  over  the  certainties of  the  present.  The
 of all souls and the Life of all lives. Hashem my God, I   sleep,  and  which  fills me  with heretical  ideas  that if  I   entire goal of the evil inclination is to cause me to lose
 deposit my nefesh, ruach and neshamah in Your pure   sleep more I will have more strength, and that I cannot   the precious hours of the night, which are worth much
 and faithful hand. Hashem my God, purify them from   function when I am so tired, and so forth. May I reliably   more than the hours of the day. It causes me to sleep
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