Overcoming Sleep
| Shavuot
By :
Jeremy Tabick PhD Candidate in Rabbinic Literature
Posted On May 3, 2018 / 5778 | Sound Bytes | Holidays
Featuring Jeremy Tabick with Leora Perkins (RS ’19)
“[F]or I, your God, am a jealous God.” (Exod. 20:5)
[God says:] I rule over jealousy; jealousy does not rule over me.
[This is in the same sense that] I rule over sleep; sleep does not rule over me, as it is said, “Behold, the Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” (Psalms 121:4)
(from Mekhilta Derabbi Yishma’el, 20:5)
“כי אנכי ה’ אלהיך אל קנא”.
אני שליט בקנאה, ואין קנאה שולטת בי,
אני שליט בנומה ואין נומה שולטת בי,
שנאמר (תהלים קכא:ד) “הנה לא ינום ולא יישן שומר ישראל”.
Image of Psalm 121 taken from the British Library’s “Duke of Sussex” Bible (Spain, 14th century)
