Likutei Halakhot
on the Shulchan
Arukh Orach Chayim
First Part: Halakhot Hashkamat
Haboqer (Laws of Early Rising in the Morning)
Halakhah 2
"One should strengthen
himself like a lion to stand up in the morning"
etc., i.e. one must arise quickly without laziness, and this is like faith, as
our Rebbi wrote (in Sefer
Hamidot -- Quickness), that
quickness is like faith. For at night the faith is amongst the shells,
but in the morning the faith grows big and is awakened. Therefore one
must arise from the sleep in quickness, to strengthen himself in faith in order
to build and grow the faith. And this is the idea of "that he should
be the one to wake up the dawn," i.e. like gazelle of the
dawn, like kingship, like faith, and this is like breaking of the lust of
money, through which one can raise the souls and drawn down Torah. As it
is written in the teaching "Happy are the people" [regarding
Divine] supervision (in LM 13) see there. Because each and every
day one must receive the Torah anew, as our Rabbis of blessed memory said
(Deut. 10) ...which I command you today... let them be each day like new
in your eyes (Sifri there) and
receiving the Torah is through raising the soul and renewing it, as explained
there. And this is done through breaking the lust for money, as mentioned
above, which is like waking from sleep quickly, like faith as mentioned
above. For the lust of money is like apostasy, like night, like darkness,
dark face, like sadness and laziness, like death, like sleep which is one
sixtieth of death (Berakhot 57).
And one needs strengthening to break the sleep which is like death, like the
lust of money. And then he can renew his soul and rise up and bring down
Torah. And then when he breaks the sleep, the lust of money, then on the
contrary the sleep is, on the contrary, actually good for him. For
through sleep he renews his soul, like (Lam. 3) They
[the Lord's kindnesses] are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
And likewise through money he renews his soul through buying and selling in
faith, which is like sleep, as is written in the Torah "Happy are the
people..." [where he discusses the] zarqa [the “~ “ cantillation
mark] (LM 35) and this is the explanation of How long wilt thou
sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of
thy sleep? I.e. how long will you sleep in laziness? When will
you break the sleep, whereupon, on the contrary, through sleep he will
strengthen his brain and his soul will be renewed, as mentioned above. And this is the idea of when wilt thou arise
out of thy sleep? I.e. that you should have
revival, that your soul should stand and rise up through the sleep.
And when one merits to raise up his soul through breaking the sleep, through
this he makes unification of the Holy One, Blessed-be-He, and his Presence.
And this is the idea of "that he should be the one to wake up the dawn,"
to awake the gazelle of the dawn to mate. And this is the
explanation of "one should strengthen himself like a lion" which is
the idea of collections of souls, to raise them up, as our Rebbi
wrote in the Torah Happy are the people (LM 13). Like I
have gathered my myrrh with my spice and through this one draws down
complete [Heavenly] supervision, through drawing close to the power of vision
through the Torah. And this is (Ps. 16) I have set the LORD before me
always, i.e. that his supervision is always upon us. And this is that
which is written (1:63) that it is proper for all those who fear Heaven that
they should be afflicted and concerned about the destruction of the
http://nissim.lbox.org/breslev – Nissim’s Breslev translations
http://breslov.com/library/ -- many Breslov
books online in Hebrew.