Sleep, Dreams, and Redemption:
"I Am Asleep Yet My Heart Is Awake."
It is 2 AM. I am going to sleep.
I have been going to sleep since 12.
There is so much to think about. And worry about.
Housework and schoolwork and children.
This is my reality.
I try to relax. To help me forget.
I pull my knit cap over my eyes and securely wrap myself in my blanket.
The fan is humming, my watch is near my ear…
I am a fetus in a womb. Snug. Secure.
The sound of my mother's heartbeat and the whirring of the fluids surround me.
I drift off.
My brain is still active, but my limbs are without sensation.
My dreaming begins.
Housework and schoolwork and children.
This is my reality.
I try to relax. To help me forget.
I pull my knit cap over my eyes and securely wrap myself in my blanket.
The fan is humming, my watch is near my ear…
I am a fetus in a womb. Snug. Secure.
The sound of my mother's heartbeat and the whirring of the fluids surround me.
I drift off.
My brain is still active, but my limbs are without sensation.
My dreaming begins.
It is a topsy-turvy world where almost anything is possible.
What is sleep? What are dreams?
How is sleepfulness different than wakefulness?
***
Humans are made of limbs and organs.
Skin, blood, bone, muscle.
We are animated by our soul, which is made up of Ten Faculties, or energies.
In their source, in the essential soul, they are one-- undifferentiated.
What is sleep? What are dreams?
How is sleepfulness different than wakefulness?
***
Humans are made of limbs and organs.
Skin, blood, bone, muscle.
We are animated by our soul, which is made up of Ten Faculties, or energies.
In their source, in the essential soul, they are one-- undifferentiated.
They (the faculties--or Soul Energies) then become individualized, differentiated
and find expression in our various body parts.
When we are awake, there is order. There is a hierarchy.
and find expression in our various body parts.
When we are awake, there is order. There is a hierarchy.
Not so when we sleep.
The powers conceal themselves.
They go back to their source where there is no hierarchy.
The head is not perceived as being higher than the rest of the body.
During sleep we enter a topsy-turvy dream world.
During sleep we enter a topsy-turvy dream world.
... babies talk, and
if you were contemplating this while you were awake--
there are golden palm trees and elephants going through needle heads.
***
During the days when the Holy Temple was in Jerusalem,
the hierarchy of G-d's supernal faculties was obvious in our world.
Good and evil were apparent.
if you were contemplating this while you were awake--
there are golden palm trees and elephants going through needle heads.
***
During the days when the Holy Temple was in Jerusalem,
the hierarchy of G-d's supernal faculties was obvious in our world.
Good and evil were apparent.
But G-d reflects us and our behavior.
When we "slept" and forgot His torah, G-d too in a sense slept.
Hence the confusion of galut, exile.
When the hierarchy is not apparent and good and evil can coexist.
***
When Israel's enemies entered the Holy of Holies of the Temple,
after they destroyed Jerusalem,
Like a husband's love for his wife.
During exile G-d is concealed from us. He is the husband on a journey at sea.
But before He "leaves," He plants the seeds of love, life and growth.
For the future.
During pregnancy, the embryo is concealed within its mother's womb.
In the very beginning it is invisible. Its own mother may be unaware of its existence.
Yet the fetus is growing, forming limbs and organs,
until it enters the world and breathes for the first time.
The miracle of birth is really the culmination of nine months of pregnancy and labor,
when the mother must sacrifice a lot--her comfort, her energy, her appetite.
The pregnancy is galut, exile, and the birth is geulah, redemption.
G-d planted the seeds for redemption at the moment before He sent us into exile.
During galut something beautiful and miraculous is growing.
Geulah is the culmination of our many years of hardship and sacrifice for G-d's Torah.
Like the newborn, we are ready to finally take our first breaths-- of the air of redemption.
This work is inspired by the teachings of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory.
It is based on the talk from Purim, 5744, that begins with "On that night the king's sleep wandered."
During exile G-d is concealed from us. He is the husband on a journey at sea.
But before He "leaves," He plants the seeds of love, life and growth.
For the future.
During pregnancy, the embryo is concealed within its mother's womb.
In the very beginning it is invisible. Its own mother may be unaware of its existence.
Yet the fetus is growing, forming limbs and organs,
until it enters the world and breathes for the first time.
The miracle of birth is really the culmination of nine months of pregnancy and labor,
when the mother must sacrifice a lot--her comfort, her energy, her appetite.
The pregnancy is galut, exile, and the birth is geulah, redemption.
G-d planted the seeds for redemption at the moment before He sent us into exile.
During galut something beautiful and miraculous is growing.
Geulah is the culmination of our many years of hardship and sacrifice for G-d's Torah.
Like the newborn, we are ready to finally take our first breaths-- of the air of redemption.
This work is inspired by the teachings of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory.
It is based on the talk from Purim, 5744, that begins with "On that night the king's sleep wandered."
Here is the link to Chabad.org where this was first published.
http://www.chabad.org/theJewishWoman/article_cdo/aid/1121743/jewish/I-am-Asleep-Yet-My-Heart-is-Awake.htm
http://www.chabad.org/theJewishWoman/article_cdo/aid/1121743/jewish/I-am-Asleep-Yet-My-Heart-is-Awake.htm