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properly about his purpose. But the Sabbath, which is a taste of
the world-to-come, is entirely geared to helping a person reach his
goal—and that is an awakening from sleep.
Therefore, at the beginning the Sabbath, we say in Lecha Dodi,
“Arise from the dust…, awaken, awaken… awake, awake.” And on
the Sabbath we sing many melodies that correspond to awakening
from sleep—“awaken, awaken, sing forth”—filled with desires
and yearnings for Hashem. As Rabbi Natan states, “The Sabbath
corresponds to awakening from sleep” (Likutei Halachot: Yein Nesech
2:3; see there his lengthy discussion). And he also teaches that eating on
the Sabbath corresponds to awakening from sleep (ibid., Shabbat 1).
Therefore, on the holy Sabbath Breslov Hasidim have the custom of
learning Rabbi Nachman’s holy tales, which also have the property
of arousing a person from sleep (as mentioned above). Harry Easton Zolna
It is known that many tzaddikim would not sleep at all on the Moshe Lev
Sabbath. Many tzaddikim used to say that we keep the Sabbath—in
Hebrew, “guard the Sabbath”—in the same way that a guard is Karen and Peter Cooper
forbidden to go to sleep. In particular, on Friday night, when a
great thirst for Hashem is aroused, the time is very favorable for
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.
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,
he would sleep two or three hours during the day, during which
time he would rise to the highest spiritual levels. From here we
may see that, in order to keep the mitzvah of delighting in sleep on
the Sabbath, it is sufficient to sleep even a small amount of time—
because it is no delight to incinerate half of the Sabbath in sleep,
heaven forbid.
The Holiness of Being Awake on the Sabbath
Sleep is death, the ultimate darkness and distance from Hashem.
Nevertheless, we say that “sleep on the Sabbath is a delight.”
This means that even sleep, which is deleterious and dangerous,
ascends on the Sabbath. Indeed, the Ari teaches that if a person is
impregnated with the soul of a tzaddik—i.e., the soul of a tzaddik
Chapter Nine: | 473
Master of the universe, give me the fear of heaven.
May I revere You. Help me so that exhaustion will not
overcome me. May I not forget all of my Judaism when
weariness overcomes me. Give me the power to wage
war against the evil inclination of sleep and vanquish it.
May I stand up and thank You for my suffering—that is
to say, my tiredness—and request with all my might that
You help me not want to sleep but only want to cling to
Thank you to Hashem for the honor You. As a result of my fear of heaven, may I gain the
strength of a lion. Give me the strength to rise like a lion,
of blessing us with a healthy baby boy so that I will please You by engaging in my preparations
to go to bed with incredible splendor, with incredible
goodness!
May we attain complete fear of heaven on every level, in
all of its parts, details and particulars…. Have compassion
on us in Your vast compassion and in Your great, vast
and tremendous kindness, and arouse us from our sleep.
Rachel and Jared Zolna For our many sins, sleep has stolen over us. For many
days and years, the true tzaddikim have been working to
David Cooper 17 arouse and awaken us from our sleep and slumber. With
various approaches and methods, with many programs
Easton Pennsylvania and great and tremendous efforts, they have applied
themselves and toiled on our behalf and concentrated His
Divinity, may He be blessed, so that it may rest upon us.
They have shone the face of the holy Torah onto us. On
our behalf, they have clothed the face of the holy Torah
March 30 2018
in a number of aspects, with Torah teachings and stories
of the primal years, all of which we have seen in their
holy books and heard from their holy mouths. These
are exalted, tremendous and awesome matters that rise
to infinity, matters that stand at the peak of the world,
matters that are truly drawn down from You, matters
that have the power to completely arouse and awaken
everyone in the world, great and small, no matter how
deeply they are sleeping. Yet we have not yet woken up,