 If there are 6,000,000,000 human beings in the world, and each sleeps an
average of 7.2 hours a night--well, you do the math. The bottom line is that
slumbered time is probably the most wasted human resource.
Why do we spend 25% to 30% of our lives doing nothing? Why do we sleep?
Genesis 1:1-6:8 Week of October 23-28  It's all here--the creation of darkness and light, the
separation of the spiritual from the material, the first man, the first sleep,
the first marriage, the first sin, the first suit, the first childbirth, the
first war. If it's going to happen in the story of man, there's a precedent in
the first Parshah of Genesis...
 "Are you kidding? I was on the design team! We poured everything into
this guy, everything that exists in the entire cosmos, all ten sefirot, plus the
transcendent emanations, and then three garments of thought, speech and
action--we really wanted this to work…
"Look, our job was software. How were we supposed to know that the hardware was to be made from mud? We pleaded with The Almighty Engineer of All Things to find a more fitting encasement for such an ultimate being than this gray meat patty."
Angels don’t say l’chaim on Simchat Torah, so they arose to sing G-d’s praises in the heavens at the usual time. But they found themselves with nothing to do, since their earthly prayers partners were still sleeping. They decided to do some cleaning up in heaven in the meantime. They found heaven littered with strange objects: torn slippers, broken heels. “Yes,” admitted the angel Michoel, “this is my merchandise.
 In modern spiritual movements, we are often advised to listen our "inner
voice"; "Follow your bliss" was the slogan of one popular
teacher. We suspect such advice of superficiality, yet we make numerous
"intuitive" decisions every day, in the belief that we have access to
deeper sources of heartfelt knowledge. Is this truth or illusion?
Twice in the Torah we find a human and an animal conversing: Eve and the serpent, and Balaam and his ass. In both cases, they're talking about the uses and abuses of the Inner Voice.
 A sudden bitter irritation twisted inside me. This husband, this rabbi ofhers, better prove women weren't second-class citizens, after all, in this whole system. And Heaven help him if he couldn't give me an answer, pronto. "I want to know why the women aren't allowed to dance with the men.
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 "We have it on tradition that Moshe Rabbenu sent messengers on clouds to this part of the world to get these special fruits," explains Rabbi Lazar. "Out of the thousands of esrogim growing in each of the orchards of Calibria you find only a few hundred that are really acceptable for Sukkot." 
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