FOR MASEI
FALLING TO SLEEP
Earlier this week, I needed to contact a teenager for a favor. The personal cell phone number of this teenager is saved in my contacts, so I pressed a few buttons and I called. There was no answer. I left a message for this person to call me back.
Fifteen minutes had passed, and I called again. I left another message when the phone was not answered. I then sent a text message. Perhaps, I thought, this person may be unable to hear the phone or maybe it was not a good time to talk.
After another half hour had passed, I called again. Same result. Reality then hit me. I was compelled to solve this issue myself. Oh well, at least I tried.
Just then, the phone rang. It was this teenager. And yes, it was no problem: the favor I needed was going to be handled, saving me time and aggravation.
In no time, the teenager was at my house. It immediately became apparent that the face in front of me had been on a pillow until about 10 minutes before arriving at my door. I inquired whether everything was okay. “Oh yes,” replied the happy teenager. “I actually just awoke.” I checked my clock. It was after 4:00 p.m. Incredulous, I said, “Umm, you mean like from last night?” “Oh yes, Rabbi,” was the reply. “Isn’t that something?”
I was unsure whether this person meant “something” great or “something” disturbing… Since this person was doing me a rather substantial favor, no time remained for a discussion.
Every single person reading these words was, or still is, a teenager. Physical and mental changes abound during this period in life. One of those is the “art” of sleeping. Somehow, it becomes a “thing” during this age for most teens, and it is not unusual for them to sleep for hours, even past the dozen mark…
As I closed the door, I thought about the many wasted hours this teenager had just thrown away. At the same time, this “wasted” time is not just on the teenager. No person in this world can survive without sleep. The human being is designed that, sooner or later, he or she must sleep for invigoration, for a refresh, for a new start. Despite the benefits of sleep, nothing can be accomplished during that down time. Why, then, did the Almighty create every single person with the need to sleep?
One of the reasons is about appreciating the step back, even the step down, prior to manifold benefit. A step back should be a trigger for a more powerful step forward. Another point of sleeping is a demonstration that no single person is all-mighty and all-powerful. Even the strongest person is constantly reminded, each day, how people do not last and continue forever. Everyone needs to stop. And not merely stop, but to restart by lying down physically, placing all limbs on the same plane.
The idea of stepping down in order to achieve a greater high, as well as the reminder of human feebleness, also has a counterpart in space, as understood from a word the Torah uses in this week’s portion, “Masei,” in regards to the Holy Land. The Torah records an instruction from the Almighty to Moses, “Command the children of Israel and say to them: When you arrive in the land of Canaan, the following is the land which will fall to you [by lot] as an inheritance.” (B’midbar (Numbers) 34:2.) The next ten verses provide the parameters and precise borders of the Holy Land.
When the Torah records Moses actually communicating this instruction to the people, it reads: “Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying: ‘This is the land that G-d has commanded to give through a lottery.’” The Divine word “fall,” is absent, however, from Moses’ version.
The term “fall” is commonly employed in the Torah and scriptures when discussing a lottery. Moses, though, delivers this commandment mentioning “lottery” but not the term “fall.” This leads to an obvious inference: Since the Torah only records the word “fall” in connection to the instruction from the Almighty – not in the communication with the people – this word was not necessarily to the Jewish people actually about to enter the Land, but to all people for all time.
The message is as follows: The borders of the Holy Land are chronicled in the Torah not merely for map purposes. The information is, rather, to provide awareness of where to perform many of the Torah’s precepts designed exclusively for the Holy Land. To know where things begin and end, one must be aware of the accurate border of the Land.
The notion of laws pertaining within specific borders is a reminder of the general idea of performing Divine physical mandates in this world. Prior to the soul’s entry into the world, as well as following its departure, the soul – which lives on – enters into its spiritual home. No physical components exist in the realm of souls, precluding any possibility of any physical activity, even holy and divine ones. The souls exist in an advanced state, well superior than any physical location.
It is for this reason that the soul’s time in this world is classified by the Sages as a “fall.” The human body, functioning in this world, naturally obsesses over earthly pursuits and pleasures. The soul, on the other hand, finds itself in foreign territory. This is a major fall.
The confines and borders of the Holy Land are also classified as a “fall” in this week’s Torah portion. It is within those specific borders in which one’s body and soul, which has “fallen” into a body in this physical world, can become more sanctified than any other place in the world due to the numerous Divine mandates one can perform there.
In other words, this “fall,” is merely a step back, or a step down, for an even greater and higher spiritual good. Since it is specifically in this world where a person possesses the ability to perform physical mandates, this effort – despite the “fall” – brings a more advanced good when the time comes. The confines inherent to the physical world into which one “falls” also serve as a reminder of the limitations each person has. No one is all-mighty.
The aforementioned provides appreciation of the connection the Jewish people have with their Holy Land. Despite the world’s physical confines and limitation, this is the location in which, by divine choice, the Jewish person – even in the current unfortunate absence of the Holy Temple – can become more sanctified than any other place on earth. This connection and link between the Jewish people and their Land is eternal and unbreakable.
The current struggle between people who choose life and Divinity and those who choose death and the opposite of spiritual light, should help every decent and good person realize that, in addition to the obvious protection of every single human being currently living there, any and all vestige of evil terror must be totally eradicated.
While sleep is a good reminder of stepping back in order to spring forward, I do not believe that one needs to be caught up in the parable rather than the message. Too much sleep turns the reminder into a way of life of not utilizing time sufficiently… Hopefully my teenage friend will spend much more time from here and on turning the confines of this world into a more sanctified place for all.
SUMMARY: People and space are all very limited. It is up to each individual to utilize the "fall" into these confines to sanctify this world.