A song I heard the ocean sing
A shining light in darkness deep
I prayed a prayer into the tide
And both they soothed me in my sleep
(Anastasio/Marshall)
(5) In their fright, the sailors cried out, each to his own god; and they flung the ship’s cargo overboard to make it lighter for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the vessel where he lay down and fell asleep. (6) The captain went over to him and cried out, “How can you be sleeping so soundly! Up, call upon your god! Perhaps the god will be kind to us and we will not perish.”
בְּשָׁל֣וֹם יַחְדָּו֮ אֶשְׁכְּבָ֪ה וְאִ֫ישָׁ֥ן כִּֽי־אַתָּ֣ה ה' לְבָדָ֑ד לָ֝בֶ֗טַח תּוֹשִׁיבֵֽנִי׃
Safe and sound, I lie down and sleep, for You alone, O LORD, keep me secure.
הַשְׁכִּיבֵנוּ ה' אֱלֹקֵינוּ לְשָׁלוֹם, וְהַעֲמִידֵנוּ מַלְכֵּנוּ (שׁוֹמְרֵנוּ) לְחַיִּים .וּפְרוֹשׂ עָלֵינוּ סֻכַּת שְׁלוֹמֶךָ. וְתַקְּנֵנוּ בְּעֵצָה טוֹבָה מִלְּפָנֶיךָ. וְהוֹשִׁיעֵנוּ לְמַעַן שְׁמֶךָ. וְהָגֵן בַּעֲדֵנוּ: וְהָסֵר מֵעָלֵינוּ אוֹיֵב דֶּבֶר וְחֶרֶב וְרָעָב וְיָגוֹן. וְהָסֵר שָׂטָן מִלְּפָנֵינוּ וּמֵאַחֲרֵינוּ. וּבְצֵל כְּנָפֶיךָ תַּסְתִּירֵנוּ. כִּי אֵל שׁוֹמְרֵנוּ (שׁוֹמְרֵנוּ) וּמַצִּילֵנוּ אָתָּה. כִּי אֵל מֶלֶךְ חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם אָתָּה: וּשְׁמוֹר צֵאתֵנוּ וּבוֹאֵנוּ לְחַיִּים וּלְשָׁלוֹם מֵעַתָּה וְעַד עוֹלָם:
(יום חול)
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', שׁוֹמֵר עַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל לָעַד
(בשבת)
וּפְרֹשׂ עָלֵינוּ סֻכַּת שְׁלוֹמֶךָ. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', הַפּוֹרֵשׂ סֻכַּת שָׁלוֹם עָלֵינוּ וְעַל כָּל עַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל וְעַל יְִרוּשָׂלָיִם.
Lie us down to peace, Adonai our God, and raise us up to life, our king (protector), and spread over us the shelter of your peace, and direct us with good advice before You, and save us for the sake of your name, and look out for us, and keep enemies, plagues swords, famines, and troubles from our midst, and remove Satan from in front of us and from behind us, and cradle us in the shadow of your wings, for You are God who guards us and saves us, for You are God. Our gracious and merciful king (protector). Guard our departure and our arrival to life and to peace, from now and ever more.
(On Weekdays:) Blessed are You, Adonai, who guards his People Israel forever.
(On Shabbat:) And spread over us the shelter of your peace. Blessed are You, Adonai, who spreads a shelter of peace over us, over all of His People Israel, and over Jerusalem.
[Translation found in R. Josh Frankin's source sheet on the Hashkivenu prayer: https://bit.ly/2HuuYx7]
...המליך אות ס' וקשר לו כתר וצר בו קשת בעולם וכסלו בשנה ומרה בנפש.
...He produced Samech, predominant in sleep, crowned, combined, and formed Sagittarius in the world, Kislev in the year, and the stomach of man.
R. Aryeh Trugman says: "It is on Chanukah, when we light the candles that we shed light upon whether or not we really have lived up to transforming our potential into actual, our dreams and hopes into reality." Here he is explaining the Hasidic teaching that the dramatic process of human repentance and Divine judgement that began during Elul and continued through Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the High Holidays, is not actually completed until the very end of Hanukkah. The candles of Hanukkah, lit in the darkest winter nights, have the ability to reveal the otherwise hidden inner strivings of our souls, if not for our own eyes to behold then for the Divine to add one last drop of oil or wax to the scales, thereby tipping the balance in favor of cosmic compassion. What does any of this have to do with sleep?
(2) Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish. (3) He said: In my trouble I called to the LORD, And He answered me; From the belly of Sheol I cried out, And You heard my voice. (4) You cast me into the depths, Into the heart of the sea, The floods engulfed me; All Your breakers and billows Swept over me. (5) I thought I was driven away Out of Your sight: Would I ever gaze again Upon Your holy Temple? (6) The waters closed in over me, The deep engulfed me. Weeds twined around my head. (7) I sank to the base of the mountains; The bars of the earth closed upon me forever. Yet You brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God! (8) When my life was ebbing away, I called the LORD to mind; And my prayer came before You, Into Your holy Temple.
This passage is like an inverted mirror image of the section from chapter 1 quoted above. There, Jonah is silent, falls asleep inside the belly of the ship and the non-Israelite ship captain has to shout, shake and awake him, pleading with Jonah to speak with "your god." Here, Jonah is awake inside the belly of the fish and he is praying to G!d. He has yet to be saved from this deep darkness and yet his prayer of praise for the Lord is in the past tense, as if he has already been redeemed. How do we make sense of Jonah's radical transformation at the very moment when all hope appears to be lost?
(א) שִׁ֥יר הַֽמַּעֲל֑וֹת מִמַּעֲמַקִּ֖ים קְרָאתִ֣יךָ ה'׃ (ב) אדושם שִׁמְעָ֪ה בְק֫וֹלִ֥י תִּהְיֶ֣ינָה אָ֭זְנֶיךָ קַשֻּׁב֑וֹת לְ֝ק֗וֹל תַּחֲנוּנָֽי׃
(1) A song of ascents. Out of the depths I call You, O LORD. (2) O Lord, listen to my cry; let Your ears be attentive to my plea for mercy.
(21) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Hold out your arm toward the sky that there may be darkness upon the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be touched.” Moses held out his arm toward the sky and thick darkness descended upon all the land of Egypt for three days. People could not see one another, and for three days no one could get up from where he was; but all the Israelites enjoyed light in their dwellings.
אַֽל־תִּשְׂמְחִ֤י אֹיַ֙בְתִּי֙ לִ֔י כִּ֥י נָפַ֖לְתִּי קָ֑מְתִּי כִּֽי־אֵשֵׁ֣ב בַּחֹ֔שֶׁךְ ה' א֥וֹר לִֽי׃
Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy! Though I have fallen, I rise again; Though I sit in darkness, the LORD is my light.
כִּֽי־אַ֭תָּה תָּאִ֣יר נֵרִ֑י ה' אֱ֝לֹקַ֗י יַגִּ֥יהַּ חָשְׁכִּֽי׃
It is You who light my lamp; the LORD, my God, lights up my darkness.
נֵ֣ר ה' נִשְׁמַ֣ת אָדָ֑ם חֹ֝פֵ֗שׂ כָּל־חַדְרֵי־בָֽטֶן׃
The candle of G!d is the soul of man, searching all of his innermost parts.
The Sfat Emet teaches on this verse:
It is written: “A lamp [candle] of the Lord is the soul of man, searching out all the belly’s chambers” (Prov. 20:27). The Gemara notes that searching requires a candle. One candle from another. “I will seek out Jerusalem with candles” (Zeph. 1:12).
Sanctuary [Mishkan] and Temple [Mikdash] are found in every one of Israel, as Scripture says: “I will dwell within them” (Ex. 25:6). These are present insofar as a person makes it clear to himself that all of life-energy comes from the soul. Thus we say each day: “The soul You have placed within me is pure….” This means that there is a certain pure place within each Jew, but it is indeed deeply hidden.
When the Temple [Mikdash] was standing, it was clear that all life-energy came from God. This is the meaning of [the verse:] “the indwelling of the Shekhinah in the Temple [Mikdash]] was witness that God dwells in Israel.” But even now, after that dwelling-place has been hidden, it can be found by searching with candles. The candles are the mitsvot; we need to seek within our hearts and souls in order to fulfill a mitsvah with all our strength. The word NeR (candle) stands for Nefesh Ruah (“soul” and “spirit”). To fulfill a mitsvah in this way we also make use of all our 248 limbs. These, combined with love and fear, together add up to the equivalent of the word NeR (248+2=250/NeR). Then we are ready to find the sanctuary, to come to the hidden point within.
Especially at this season, when lights were miraculously lit for Israel even though they did not have enough oil, there remains light even now to help us, with the aid of these Hanukkah candles, to find that hidden light within. Hiding takes place mainly in the dark; we need the candles’ light to seek and to find…
Source: Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger, as translated by Art Green and included in Marc Soloway's source sheet on "What Is Hanukkah?": https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/89249?lang=bi
See also R. Rachel Barenblat's translation and commentary on this teaching:
From the Zohar: Rabbi Isaac said, "The light created by God in the act of Creation flared from one end of the universe to the other and was hidden away, reserved for the righteous in the world that is coming, as it is written: 'Light is sown for the righteous.' (Psalm 97:11) Then the worlds will be fragrant, and all will be one. But until the world that is coming arrives, it is stored and hidden away."
Rabbi Judah responded, "If the light were completely hidden, the world would not exist for even a moment! Rather it is hidden and sown like a seed that gives birth to seeds and fruit. Thereby the world is sustained. Every single day a ray of that light shines into the world, keeping everything alive; with that ray God feeds the world. And everywhere that Torah is studied at night one thread-thin ray appears from that hidden light and flows down upon those absorbed in her. Since the first day, the light has never been fully revealed, but it is vital to the world, renewing each day the act of Creation."
Source: Zohar, translated by Daniel Matt, The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism, page. 90. Zohar 1:31b-32a; 2:148b-149a, found in R. Jill Zimmerman's source sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/1103.8?lang=bi
(ח) מַיִם אוֹמְרִים. לְקֹול תִּתֹּו הֲמֹון מַיִם בַּשָּׁמַיִם וַיַּעַל נְשִׂאִים מִקְצֵה אָרֶץ בְּרָקִים לַמָּטָר עָשָׂה וַיֹּצֵא רוּחַ מֵאֹצְרֹתָיו: (ירמיה נא טז)
(ט) יָמִים אוֹמְרִים. מִקֹּלוֹת מַיִם רַבִּים אַדִּירִים מִשְׁבְּרֵי יָם אַדִּיר בַּמָּרוֹם ה': (תהילים צג ד)
(י) נַהֲרוֹת אוֹמְרִים. נְהָרוֹת יִמְחֲאוּ כָף יַחַד הָרִים יְרַנֵּנוּ (תהילים צח ח)
(יא) מַעְיָנוֹת אוֹמְרִים. וְשָׁרִים כְּחֹלְלִים כָּל מַעְיָנַי בָּךְ: (תהילים פז ז)
(8) The Waters are saying: “When his voice resounds with a great mass of water in the heavens, and he raises vapors from the ends of the Earth; when he makes lightning among the rain, and he brings out the wind from its storehouses.”
(9) The Seas are saying: “More than the voices of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea, YHVH on high is mighty.”
(10) The Rivers are saying: Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing for joy together!”
(11) The Wellsprings are saying: “And as singers who are like dancers are all those who study you.”
--R. Nachman of Breslov, Shir Na'im
(לא) תַּנִּינִים אוֹמְרִים. הַלְלוּ אֶת ה' מִן הָאָרֶץ תַּנִּינִים וְכָל תְּהֹמוֹת: (תהילים קמח ז)
(לב) לִוְיָתַן אוֹמֵר. הוֹדוּ לַה' כִּי טוֹב כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ: (תהילים קלו א)
(לג) דָּגִים אוֹמְרִים. קוֹל ה' עַל הַמָּיִם אֵל הַכָּבוֹד הִרְעִים ה' עַל מַיִם רַבִּים: (תהילים כט ג)
(31) The Sea Monsters are saying: “Praise YHVH from the land, the sea monsters and all the depths.” (Psalms 148:7)
(32) The Leviathan is saying, “Give thanks to YHVH for he is good, for his lovingkindness endures in the cosmos.” (Psalms 136:1)
(33) The Fishes are saying, “The voice of YHVH is upon the waters, the El of kavod thunders, YHVH is upon many waters.” (Psalms 29:3)