Yaakov, Laila, Arvis And Krias Shema Al Hamitah

In Masechet Brachos that tefillos tikkunum, each of the three daily tefillos was instituted by one of the Avos. In Sefarim, one finds the idea that it's not simply that Yitzchok and Yaakov came and they upped the number of daily tefillos to two, to three, but that each tefillah has its particular emphasis which corresponds to the midah of each of the respective Avos. So let's perhaps briefly explore what that idea means in terms of tefillas arvis introduced by Yaakov Avinu. Yaakov Avinu, the name is derived min lashon akeiv, the heel, which represents shiflus. Kemedumeh, the Rav Pinkus quotes from Sefarim and in his kuntres Shabbos Malketa that three things, people are referred to as katan. Halevanah is hamaor hakatan. Dovid Hamelech, when Shmuel is coming to anoint, he doesn't know which one of the sons of Yishai, so Dovid Hamelech is identified as katan. And the third, we find the pasuk says

ותקח רבקה את בגדי עשו בנה הגדול החמודות אשר איתה בבית ותלבש את יעקב בנה הקטן.

What katan signifies is not only a smaller magnitude, but what defines Halevanah is לית לה מגרמה כלום, that Halevanah has nothing of its own. Halevanah just reflects the sun, the light of the sun. So what katan represents then, the epithet of katan, the description of katan expresses complete hitbatlus. And the same way, Halevanah, as it were, this total hitbatlus of the maor hakatan to the maor hagadol in the sense that what the maor hakatan does is simply reflect the light of the maor hagadol. It doesn't as it were, it doesn't inject, interject anything of its own. The midah of Dovid Hamelech was complete hitbatlus to the Ribono Shel Olam, which is taka why malchus beis Dovid is compared to the Halevanah. Why we say the pasuk of דוד מלך ישראל חי וקיים as part of Kiddush Levanah. And that same defining quality of hitbatlus is present in Yaakov Avinu as well, hence the description Yaakov beno hakatan. Now, as we've been discussing, the sense of dependence and vulnerability is present in all our tefillos. It goes to the core of what tefillah is, and yet it stands out especially prominently. It's accentuated even more in tefillas arvis than the other tefillos. How so? Night, nighttime is a time of greater vulnerability. Right, Rachmana Litzlan, so we all know if a person's running a fever that at night the fever goes higher, the fact that temperature is lower in the day, so a person really doesn't know if he's over the virus because fevers spike at night. In a nistar'dike sense, we don't understand this, we don't relate to it, but mazikim have a certain pose a hazard at night that isn't present during the day. We're not so attuned to the vulnerability of darkness because of electricity, but an occasional blackout reminds us of the vulnerability which is imposed by darkness. And most of all, night is a time of complete and absolute vulnerability because nighttime is a time of sheinah, it's a time of sleep. During a person's waking hours, so hopefully we don't do this with illusions or delusions, but lema'aseh when a person's awake, he makes a hishtadlus to be careful. A person makes a hishtadlus to take care of himself. A person makes a hishtadlus to guard himself against dangers. There's one time when a person cannot, does not make a hishtadlus, when a person's asleep, there's no, can't engage in a hishtadlus. There's no, again, whatever the hishtadlus objectively represents and whatever we delude ourselves into thinking it represents, but none of that is present during sheinah. Ad k'dei kach, Ad k'dei kach, I think medical science tells us that during certain stages of the sleep cycle a person is actually paralyzed. Rachmana Litzlan, it should never happen when it's not supposed to happen in that natural healthy rhythm which typifies and accentuates the absolute dependence of nighttime. So the nighttime, when a person is mispallel in the daytime, so a person is being mispallel that Hakadosh Baruch Hu should crown our efforts with success. When a person is mispallel during the daytime, he's mispallel that Hakadosh Baruch Hu should in response or kavyachol as it were in the partnership of chesed that Hakadosh Baruch Hu forges with us, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu should make our hishtadlus successful. But that's not what we're asking for in Tefillas Arvis, השכיבנו ה' אלקינו לשלום. The geulah amittah for semichas geulah l'tefillah by arvis and therefore implicitly that then carries over, it characterizes what the content of the amida is as well. There's no partnership, not to crown our efforts with success, not that our hishtadlus should, in response to our hishtadlus Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it's not 99.999% the siyata d'shmaya and the .0001% hishtadlus, it's 100%. That tefillah, the tefillah with this idea, this reality of 100% vulnerability, even to the exclusion of the barest minimal hishtadlus, so that tefillah is introduced by Yaakov, the one whose middah is as akev, the one whose middah is complete and... and total hisbatlus to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Maybe just to juxtapose to that and to finish with: what's the whole inyan of קריאת שמע על המיטה? Chazal tell us mipnei hamazikin. But vos epes Krias Shema, just mazikin so? I don't know, like the talmid chacham can do, so we should say Tehillim, as the Gemara says a talmid chacham can. But vos epes Krias Shema? Krias Shema is the text for קבלת עול מלכות שמים. So the Rav has in the yahrtzeit shiurim an extraordinary, extraordinary havana. A person can go to sleep naturally, instinctively. It's late, he's too tired to function productively anymore. His body craves sleep, it's screaming out for rejuvenation. So he takes his slippers and he goes to sleep. Natural, something done purely naturally. Or a person can recognize that weakness, that dependence. He can recognize that as a dependence upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And he can go to sleep, not just giving in to a natural, overwhelming sense of fatigue, but he can go to sleep as an active surrender to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as a recognition of a person's absolute dependence upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Person says קריאת שמע על המיטה, says the Rav, the קריאת שמע על המיטה is also קבלת עול מלכות שמים. Going to sleep is an occasion, is a time for קבלת עול מלכות שמים. Why precisely because of that same theme which we saw characterizes and defines Tefillas Arvis, so that carries over to that's what קריאת שמע על המיטה is. Not to go to sleep just again as a natural reaction: I'm hungry, I eat, I'm thirsty, I drink, I'm tired, I sleep, just as a natural instinctive reaction. But a person goes to sleep, surrenders, surrenders himself, surrenders the neshama to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's what's accomplished through קריאת שמע על המיטה, again very, very much consonant and consistent with what the defining character and characteristic of Tefillas Arvis of Yaakov Avinu, of the zman of layla.