Sunday, March 18, 2007

Getting Up Before the Yetzer Hara


A friend of mine told his uncle, who's the Menahel of a Seminary in Eretz Yisroel what time I get up each morning. He then told me a vort from the Chidah, Rav Chaim Yosef Dovid Azulai.

It says in the gemara, "Haboh l'horgecha, hashkaim l'horgo. (Sanhedrin 72a)" (If one comes to kill you, get up to kill him first.) And who comes to kill you each day? The Yetzer Hara. (Kiddushin 30b)He says, therefore, that when you get up very early each morning, it's a segula that you'll get up to beat the Yetzer Hara before it get you!

-Dixie Yid

Picture courtesy of Answers.com

3 comments:

yitz said...

when do you wake up?

i've just recently noticed a pattern in my own yearly sleeping schedule, somewhere in the middle/end of the winter every year I get sick and then my sleeping pattern is ruined for months.. until the really early sunrises fix it in the summer, i think.

DixieYid (يهودي جنوبي) said...

I get up at 4 AM each day. I learn Bilvavi with a chaver and then 2 hours of gemara with another chevrusa before davening Shacharis and heading off to work.

Once a week or two my crazy schedule catches up with me and I sleep in till 6:30. I try not to kill myself about it. Some of the time it's simple laziness and some times I think it might be needed as a safety valve to allow myself to keep it up the rest of the time. It's hard but it is such a pleasure to learn great things with great people.

-Dixie Yid

yitz said...

i would be envious of your schedule.. if i'm allowed to be.. am i? is it considered gashmiyut or ruchniyut?

i'll settle for envious of the learning u get in in the mornings..

keep it up. you're setting a good example!