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The Torah tells us that Yaakov set out on a journey away from his family and towards Charan he came to a place on the road and lay down to sleep at which time he dreamt of a ladder with angels going up and down the ladder. Says the Torah: “Vayikatz Yaakov mishnato, Jacob awoke from his sleep” (28: 17). About this verse, Rabbi Yochanan taught: “Do not read, ‘from his sleep,’ but rather from his Torah studies (mi-mishnato)” (Bereishit Rabbah, 69:7).
A tzaddik somehow studies Torah even while sleeping.
The story is told about the rebbe, Reb Bunim, that he only slept two hours a night. During those two hours that he was “sleeping,” his two students, Reb Yitzchak Vorka and Reb Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, used to sit at his bedside. During the first hour of sleep, Reb Yitzchak would read aloud from the words of the Midrash and during the second hour the Kotzker would read aloud from the holy Zohar. Once in a while, when it appeared to the students that their rebbe was actually sleeping they would stop reading so that the rebbe could sleep undisturbed. But when that happened, immediately the rebbe would wake up and start to recite the Midrash or Zohar from the exact place where his students had stopped!
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