When to be Calm

	And he reached the place and slept there, for the sun had set …                            Genesis 28:11
	Rabbi Yehuda says, here Jacob slept, but for the fourteen years he was immersed in Torah study at the yeshiva of Ever, Jacob did not sleep. Rabbi Naḥman says Jacob slept here, but he did not sleep for the twenty years he spent with Lavan.                                                                    Midrash

          My saintly teacher, Rabbi Mordechai Rogov, noted that it is remarkable that Jacob was able to sleep as he ran away in fear of Esau killing him. Human nature is to have difficulty sleeping when in mortal danger.

          Rabbi Rogov explained that this exact point underlies Rabbi Yehuda’s approach in our Midrash. In essence, Rabbi Yehuda asserts that despite his dire straits, Jacob found the calm to sleep because of his fourteen years of sleeplessness in the yeshiva of Ever. It was these fourteen years of devoting nights as well as days to the study of Torah which become the source of Jacob’s faith and trust in God, endowing him with the spiritual strength to allow him to sleep even at his time of mortal danger.

          As for Rabbi Naḥman’s approach, the question is how Jacob was able to sleep comfortably in his situation of mortal danger, while not sleeping during all the years he spent in the safety of Laban’s home. Rabbi Naḥman, in effect, points out that the safety provided to Jacob in Laban’s home was physical safety. In his father-in-law’s home, Jacob did not have to worry about food and a place to rest for himself and his family. Yet, Jacob did not sleep, being aware of the spiritual dangers of living in the proximity of evil people.

          Taking the two opinions expressed in the Midrash together, we can understand that it was Jacob’s past of Torah study which allowed him to remain calm in a state of danger, while his concern for his spiritual future and that of his descendants prevented his remaining calm, even at a time of physical comfort.