Sleep And The Return Of The Soul

When a person is deprived of sleep for long enough he will literally go crazy [I write this in a sleep deprived state so it's mamesh li-myse:-)]. A person needs sleep because that is what gives him the strength to continue. What is the spiritual explanation for this?

When a person is awake he is in his most physical state. Sleep is 1/60th of death as the gemara teaches. We even make a bracha that expresses this clearly - המחזיר נשמות לפגרים מתים [You return souls to corpses]. Thus, death is a return to the Source. This return effectively "fills up the tank" for another day of activity. In its absence a person will have no strength to continue. When we wake up in the morning, we thank Hashem שהחזרת בי נשמתי - that he returned my neshama. This is not the same exact neshama as the one I returned last night before sleep but a "recharged" neshama. However, its basic properties remain unchanged, which is why we say שהחזרת - you returned, meaning that it's same one we gave you.

On Shabbos we sleep, because Shabbos is the day when the world returns to its source [that is what the word "Shabbos" means - return] and so do we.

Sweet dreams:-)!!

עיין סידור עולת ראיה