It takes approximately 45 minutes to fully go through a R.E.M sleeping cycle. Once one is in that cycle they are in a deep sleep and have a lower chance of being woken. Have you ever tried waking up a friend from falling asleep in class or during a speech? I have, and I have come to realize that I can tap him, push him, pinch him and maybe even punch him in the face and he will still remain in a deep and dark slumber.
My dear friends, our nation has fallen into this cycle I speak of. We are all sleeping and not even responding to our friendly taps and pushes that G-d has given us. We continue to sleep and we continue to dream. We wonder why there is so much tumult in the world we wonder why G-d does these things to us, but we must realize it is the nightmare which we have created due to our wrong doings.
How do we respond to Mumbai? How do we make things better for ourselves? How do we move forward when everything in front of us looks so weary? I know we all have a sense of despair and despondency due to all the catastrophic events that never seem to cease, but we must realize that all these events and obstacles are etched into our very existence.
Before Daniel Pearl was brutally murdered by a terrorist he said to them (and us) on live video footage “I am Jewish. My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish. I AM JEWISH!” What was he trying to prove? What was he doing telling the people who held a gun to his chest? He was making it clear that despite what you do to me, I have a promise. It’s not from someone who I can’t trust. It’s not from my friend who I have known for a couple of years. It’s not from a sibling or a prestigious Rabbi, it’s from G-D!
“And it shall come to pass if you surely listen to the commandments that I command you today. to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul, That I will give rain to your land, the early and the late rains, that you may gather in your grain, your wine and your oil. And I will give grass in your fields for your cattle and you will eat and you will be satisfied. Beware, lest your heart be deceived and you turn and serve other gods and worship them. And anger of the Lord will blaze against you, and he will close the heavens and there will not be rain, and the earth will not give you its fullness, and you will perish quickly from the good land that the Lord gives you.(Deuteronomy 11:13-21)”
HaShem cries down to us every day. He screams to us “PLEASE! WAKE UP!!! WAKE UP!!!!!” He sends an earth quake but few hear… He cries to us a hurricane of tears but we seem to think it’s a drip from the faucet so we roll over and fall into our slumber once again… “MY CHILDREN, WHY HAVE YOU LEFT ME? WHY HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN?! WAKE UP!!” He sends us something more personal… a death in the family, a car accident that we miraculously didn’t die in and then again we stay comfortable in our beds unshaken. Then… He sends us the bone shuddering news of the Jews who gave their heart, their FULL heart for HaShem when no one else would and he takes them. He takes the martyrs of our world. The people who would have willingly given their lives for the sake of a religion that most people who are involved in are clueless about. He says “When will you wake up?! When will the days of old return again? “
We still don’t wake up… the soft words, the tap, the pinch, the push… nothing …we are comfortable deep in a dark sleep.
My sweetest friends WHY do we need to be punched in the face? Why must it come to that?! Take this as a sweet and soft wake up call for what can be coming next. It says in the Talmud that good deeds can change predestined events.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe teaches that we must take the tears and pain and turn it into action.
WAKE UP! Make a difference! Challenge yourself to ask questions!
For the remembrance of the viciously murdered do a good deed. Bring yourself closer to smelling the coffee and seeing the sunrise. How do we cope with these events that make us question… we strive and we bring ourselves closer to the source. HaShem tells us if we follows his ways then we will live in that utopian society that people don’t think actually exists… it does exist, the only catch is WE must create it.
Focus on intention in the mitzvoat and Brachot you make.
Focus on speech
“WAKE UP! WAKE UP! for your light has come, rise up and shine. AWAKEN AWAKEN utter a song the Glory of Hashem has been revealed upon you.” – Come my Beloved (The Shabbat prayer)

(by: Isaiah Rothstein – forwarded to me on facebook)