20 Jan PARSHA IN PRACTICE: SKILLS FOR BETTER LIVING BO – A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP

Was Pharaoh really
roaming around
in pajamas in the
middle of the night?
We may not have a way to verify that
bold claim, but the sentiment is certainly
true. When makkas bechoros struck at
midnight, Pharaoh “got up” and called for
Moshe and Aharon (Shemos 12:30-31).
Rashi adds just one word -“mi’mitaso” –
to explain that Pharaoh got up “from his
bed.”
At first glance, this may not sound like
a necessary clarification. After all, where
else would someone get up from in
the middle of the night? However, Rav
Chatzkel Abramsky zt”l (d. 1976) found
great significance in this seemingly
insignificant comment of Rashi.
Moshe’s warning prior to this final plague
could not have been clearer: This is
your last chance; if you don’t listen now,
Egyptians will start dying. Given Moshe’s
impeccable track record, how would we
have expected Pharaoh to respond to this

terrifying news? It is not surprising that
he still refused to let the Jewish people
go – his stubbornness was legendary. But
surely, he must have been at least a little
scared… right?
Wrong.
Despite knowing of the imminent danger
to himself and his nation, Pharaoh put
on his pajamas and went to bed. Instead
of pacing nervously all night or running
around giving his citizens – or even his
doctors – a heads-up, Pharaoh tucked
himself under his comfortable covers
to get some rest. When the clock struck
midnight and death began sweeping
through Egypt, Pharaoh had to get up
“from his bed” to deal with the crisis he
had chosen to ignore.
This one-word comment of Rashi gives
us remarkable insight – not only into
Pharaoh’s stubbornness, but into his
chilling apathy toward the fate of his own
people.
A striking parallel appears earlier in the

Torah, in Parshas Vayeira.
The Brisker Rav notes that
Avraham’s early “getting up”
on the morning of Akeidas
Yitzchak (Bereishis 22:3)
indicates that he, too, slept
soundly the night before. A
typical person would have
tossed and turned all night
with anxiety when faced with
such a demand. Avraham,
however, slept peacefully –
secure beneath the blanket
of his unwavering faith in
Hashem.
The serene emunah of Avraham Avinu and
the outrageous indifference of Pharaoh
represent two diametrically opposite ways
to get a good night’s sleep. To an outside
observer, faith and callousness can look
deceptively similar. Internally, however,
they could not be more different. Years of
cultivating a relationship with the Divine
create a warm-blooded trust that allows a
person to remain grounded even in life’s
most painful moments, confident that

everything has meaning. By contrast,
repeated disengagement from one’s
moral and spiritual core breeds a cold
detachment that copes with suffering by
assuming that nothing truly matters.
Each night, as we put on our pajamas,
recite Shema, and entrust our neshamos
to Hashem, we are given an opportunity
to strengthen our bitachon. As that trust
deepens, we become better able to let go
of our worries – not out of apathy, but out
of faith in the One who cares the most.