To Sleep Like a Horse

How to Come Out from Under the Control of the Sitra Achra:
Imagine a prison, a fairly standard prison – at least standard in the way that many prisons used to be. From sunrise to sunset, the prisoners are forced into hard labor. They don't get much time to rest and they're not allowed to talk with each other without permission. By the end of the day, they're totally exhausted and in a foul mood. However, the warden isn't a terrible person. He just has a job to do, like everybody else. In fact, he's really a rather kind individual – 'kind' in the way that most decent folk are kind. Therefore, out of his abundant kindness, he allows the criminals to hang out with each other in the evenings – as long as they want. There is no official time for 'lights out.'
But the warden is even kinder than that. For as long as anyone can remember, he's had in place another very unusual policy: anyone who is awake at midnight can simply pack up his things and walk out. No questions asked. Simple as that. At midnight, the gates are unlocked, and the guards are under strict orders from the warden not to stop anyone from leaving. However, most of the prisoners never walk out to freedom. Yes, there are a those who resist the temptation to hang out with their fellow inmates at the end of the day. They go to bed immediately after work, even without eating supper sometimes, just so that they might be able to wake up before midnight. But they are far and few between. And then there are those who try to stay awake all evening, but most of them conk out before midnight because they're just too exhausted from the long day of forced labor. So when it comes right down to it, very, very few prisoners ever manage to take advantage of the warden's strange policy.
David ha-Melech testified about himself (Tehillim 119:62): חֲצוֹת־לַיְלָה אָקוּם לְהוֹדוֹת לָךְ עַל מִשְׁפְּטֵי צִדְקֶךָ (I get up at midnight [chatzot] to thank You for Your righteous judgments). R' Acha taught the intent of David's words (Berachot 3b): מֵעוֹלָם לֹא עָבַר עָלַי חֲצוֹת לַיְלָה בְּשֵׁינָה (Chatzot never passed me by while I was asleep). This idea is further explained by R' Zeira: עַד חֲצוֹת לַיְלָה הָיָה מִתְנַמְנֵם כְּסוּס מִכָּאן וְאֵילָךְ הָיָה מִתְגַּבֵּר כַּאֲרִי (Until chatzot, he would doze like a horse, from then on, he would strengthen himself like a lion). How come David ha-Melech was so strict with himself that he always made sure to be awake at the precise moment of chatzot?
Let's consider a related issue. Hashem struck down the firstborn of Egypt precisely at chatzot (Shemot 12:29): וַיְהִי בַּחֲצִי הַלַּיְלָה וַיי הִכָּה כׇל־בְּכוֹר בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם (And it was at chatzot, and Hashem struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt). How come Hashem chose this specific moment to strike Egypt with the final plague, the plague that finally blasted open the doors for the Jews to leave their Egyptian prison? Again we ask, 'What's so special about chatzot?'
Let's try to shed some light on this often neglected and frequently misunderstood subject.
It's brought down in the Zohar ha-Kadosh (Vayigash 206b) that R' Yosi and R' Yehudah were sitting in an inn discussing the meaning of the mesorah that David ha-Melech slept like a horse. Since it's known that a horse sleeps only a little bit at a time – specifically, 'sixty breaths' (see Succah 26b) – they couldn't understand how David ha-Melech could wake up at chatzot to praise Hashem. According to Kabbalah, there are six regular hours from the time that the stars come out (tzeit ha-kochavim) until chatzot. Therefore, if David slept only sixty breaths he would have awakened hours before chatzot. Therefore, R' Yosi proposed that David must have taken care of judicial matters and learned Torah in the first part of the night. After concluding those responsibilities, he would have gone to sleep, sleeping like a horse, i.e. sixty breaths, and then he'd be able to wake up just before chatzot. In other words, R' Yosi and R' Yehudah held that the 'sixty breaths' refers to a specific and literal span of time. Very nice p'shat. However, that doesn't explain why David ha-Melech was so particular about not being asleep at chatzot.
To answer that question, the Zohar continues the story. Just as R' Yosi and R' Yehudah were concluding their discussion, R' Chizkiyah came into the inn and joined them (Vayigash 207a). He said, 'Do you really believe that these sixty breaths are to be understood literally? Rather, permit me to explain to you both the real meaning of these sixty breaths.' Needless to say, R' Yosi and R' Yehudah were all ears.
(The following summary of this Zohar comes from the Matok m'Devash commentary, which in turn relies heavily on the explanation provided by the Rashash in Nahar Shalom.)
R' Chizkiyah began: דָוִד מַלְכָּא חַי וְקַיָּים לְעָלַם וּלְעָלְמֵי עָלְמִין (David ha-Melech lives and exists forever and ever). He then asked, 'How come'? He answered that it is because: דָוִד מַלְכָּא הֲוָה נָטִיר כָּל יוֹמוֹי דְּלָא יִטְעַם טַעַם מִיתָה בְּגִין דְּשֵׁינְתָא חַד מִשִּׁתִּין בְּמִיתָה אִיהוּ...לָא הֲוָה נָאִים אֶלָּא שִׁיתִּין נִשְׁמֵי (David ha-Melech guarded himself all of his days from experiencing the taste of death, because sleep is 1/60th of death...he only slept sixty breaths). There's a lot to unpack here, so we'll go step by step.
The Zohar states that, technically speaking, when it says 'sixty breaths,' it really means דְּשִׁתִּין נִשְׁמֵי חָסֵר חַד ('sixty breaths minus one'). What is this subtle distinction all about? First, we'll need to understand the actual meaning of these 'sixty breaths'? The phrase 'sixty breaths' is not a literal span of time (as R' Yosi and R' Yehudah initially thought) but rather any amount of sleep (however long or short) that one has during the first six hours of the night, from tzeit ha-kochavim until, but not including, chatzot. Because this period of time does not include the actual moment of chatzot itself, the phrase 'sixty breaths' is technically 'sixty breaths minus one.'
Now this helps us understand what Chizkiyah meant when he said that 'sleep is 1/60th of death.' He wasn't talking about sleep in general, but rather to sleep at chatzot. That's the sleep that is 1/60th of death, and since a person who is asleep at chatzot experiences this aspect of death, David ha-Melech made sure that he never slept at chatzot. That's how he protected himself from ever experiencing death, i.e. the 1/60th of sleep which is mamash as aspect of death. And because David ha-Melech was careful never to sleep 'sixty breaths,' he is called 'alive' and he lives forever. In the words of the Zohar: דְּעַד שִׁתִּין נִשְׁמֵי חָסֵר חַד אִיהוּ חַי (Until sixty breaths minus one, this is called being alive).
Let's dive a little deeper into the secret of these sixty (minus one) breaths. What exactly are these sixty breaths anyway? Are they literal breaths? R' Chizkiyah explains: בְּגִין דְּשִׁתִּין נִשְׁמֵי חָסֵר חַד אִיהוּ רָזָא דְחַיִּים דִּלְעֵילָא עַד שִׁתִּין נִשְׁמֵי דְּאִינוּן שִׁתִּין נִשְׁמֵי עִלָּאִין וְאִילֵין רָזָא דִלְהוֹן דְּתַלְיָין בְּהוֹן חַיֵּי וּמִכָּאן וּלְתַתָּא, רָזָא דְמוֹתָא הוּא (Because the sixty breaths minus one [that a person sleeps during the first six hours of night after tzeit] are the secret of Supernal Life, until [but not including] sixty breaths, they are the aspect of sixty Supernal Breaths, and the secret is that life [Supernal Life as well as physical life] depends on them, but from that point on [i.e. sleep from chatzot onward] is the secret of death). In other words, different types of sleep correspond to different times for sleep. When one sleeps during the first six hours of night and then wakes up before chatzot to serve Hashem until the morning, his sleep is truly a sleep of life. It not only rejuvenates a person physically (bringing healing to the body and soul), but it draws down into that individual a true spirit of life, the Breath of Supernal Life, as it was when Hashem created Adam ha-Rishon (Bereshit 2:7): וַיִּיצֶר יְיָ אֱלֹקִים אֶת־הָאָדָם עָפָר מִן־הָאֲדָמָה וַיִּפַּח בְּאַפָּיו נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים וַיְהִי הָאָדָם לְנֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה (And Hashem G-d formed the man from the ground, and He blew into his nostrils the Breath of [Supernal] Life, and the man became a living soul). In other words – and this is a very profound and important point – by living one's life according to this schedule, one literally begins to repair the sin of Adam ha-Rishon and, bit by bit, returns himself to the condition of Adam before the sin!
But what happens, chas v'shalom, if we allow ourselves to sleep at chatzot? R' Chizkiyah continues: וּבַר נָשׁ דְּנָאִים בְּעַרְסֵיהּ וְלָא אִתְעַר לְאַשְׁגָּחָא בִּיקָרָא דְמָארֵיהּ הָא אִיהוּ אִתְקַשַּׁר בְּרָזָא דְמוֹתָא וּמִתְדַּבַּק בְּאֲתַר אָחֳרָא (A person who sleeps in his bed and doesn't wake up to attend to the kavod of his Master, he connects himself, in the secret of death, and clings to the place of the Sitra Achra). Now, what did R' Yosi and R' Yehudah do after they heard this p'shat from R' Chizkiyah? They were so happy about what they heard, they got up and kissed him. They didn't get depressed. They were thrilled.
As an addendum to this story, the Zohar relates that R' Elazar, the son of R' Shimon bar Yochai, showed up and asked them what they were discussing. After they told him, he added a new insight (Vayigash 207b): וַדַּאי שַׁפִּיר קָאֲמַר. אֲבָל אִינוּן שִׁתִּין נִשְׁמֵי וַדַּאי שִׁתִּין נִשְׁמֵי אִינוּן דְּחַיִּין בֵּין לְעֵילָא בֵּין לְתַתָּא. מִכָּאן וּלְהָלְאָה אִיכָּא שִׁתִּין נִשְׁמִין אָחֳרָנִין דְּאִינוּן כֻּלְּהוּ מִסִּטְרָא דְמוֹתָא וְדַרְגָּא דְמוֹתָא עֲלַיְיהוּ וְאִקְרוּן דּוּרְמִיטָא וְכֻלְּהוּ טַעֲמָא דְמוֹתָא (That which [R' Chizkiyah] said is for sure correct. However [let me add something to your understand]: For sure, these sixty breaths are the sixty breaths of life, whether above [in the Supernal worlds] or below [in our physical world], but from this point onward [i.e. from chatzot onward] there are [another] sixty breaths, which are entirely from the side of death, and the level of death rests upon them, and they are called 'Deep Sleep' [Tardeima], which is wholly the taste of death). That's pretty heavy, but the good news is that we can change our reality. It's like the prison that we described in the beginning of this article. All we have to do is wake up and walk out. Or if you prefer, it's like the 'Get out of Jail, Free' card in the game of Monopoly. All we have to do is use it.
Now if you've been concentrating, you should realize that we have a problem. What problem? Our original understanding of David ha-Melech sleeping like a horse (according to R' Yosi and R' Yehudah) was that he slept for no more than sixty literal breaths at any given time. But we have concluded (according to R' Chizkiyah) that the sixty breaths has nothing to do with an actual span of time. Therefore, why do Chazal say that David ha-Melech slept like a horse? What does a horse have to do with anything? If the comparison has nothing to do with a horse's actual sleep schedule, what is the meaning of the comparison?
It could be that R' Chizkiyah learned the secret of sleep and its connection to chatzot from the Hebrew word for horse itself – סוּס [soos]. The word סוּס is a graphical representation that teaches this secret. How so? The key is that the gematria of ס is 60. Therefore, the word סוּס teaches us that the night is divided into two parts, each part being made up of 60 breaths (the first half of Life and the second half of Death), the dividing line being chatzot, which is represented by the ו which sits right in the middle, between the first and the second ס.
The bottom line is that if we don't want the Sitra Achra to have dominion over us during the day, then we'd better not be asleep at chatzot. It's as if the Samech-Mem injects us with a booster shot of the zuhama, his spiritual filth, precisely at chatzot – but only if we're asleep and unable to protest. If we're awake and have awareness, he can't inject us with his tumah.
This is why R' Nachman of Breslev taught something which some find hard to believe (Sichot ha-Ran 301): שֶׁעִקָּר עֲבוֹדַת אִישׁ הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִי הוּא בַּחֹרֶף לָקוּם בַּחֲצוֹת לַיְלָה (The main avodah for a Jew, in the winter [at least, when the nights are long], is to get up at chatzot). It's not making sure we're b'simchah, or singing and dancing on van rooftops in the middle of the street, or even having emunah and davening with kavanah, or making sure that we spend an hour in hitbodedut every day, or going to the mikveh before Shacharit, or reciting tikkun ha-klali – or even connecting to the Tzaddik or going to Uman for Rosh Hashanah! Nope, it's none of these. Just make sure we're awake before chatzot. If we do this, if we stop letting ourselves get a daily dose of poison, then slowly, slowly, night after night, day after day, the existing zuhama that's already in our system will get purged out of our bodies and souls. Then everything else will begin to fall into place. Seriously.
The Satan has worked very hard to hide this truth from us, but now, as they say, the cat's out of the bag. He can't stop you. Just get up and walk out of his prison.