This depiction portrays a life of serenity and calm. Yet the Torah adds to what seems almost obvious, ‘I will provide peace in the land, and you will lie down with none to frighten you’.

What aspect of ‘peace’ is added here that is not already self-evident from the details of their idyllic life so clearly delineated?

Additionally, what is this extra emphasis on sleeping soundly, free from anxiety and fear?

Fear equally affects our every moment in life, whether in our wakeful hours and activities that are hindered by worry and concern, or during our fitful sleep that is disturbed by images of enemies or looming misfortune.  

The holy Ohr HaChaim suggests that the peace alluded to here refers to the day of death, assuring those who follow in His way that they will depart peacefully. The word describing laying down is ושכבתם, the same root as שכיבה, the metaphor used for the death of the righteous who do not ‘die’ but are ‘laid’ down, indicating a passage to a new realm, rather than simply expiring. ואין מחריד, none will frighten you, relates to the Angel of Death who we will not have to fear after having lived an inspired life.

So the word often used to denote sleep שכב, literally to lie down, is the same implemented to connote death. Certainly it is not just the parallel of lying down horizontally alone that joins these two concepts.

Sleep is a time when we take a temporary ‘leave’ from life, hopefully to revive once again refreshed each morning. Hashem created this need so that we may reconnect each night, in a sense by detaching from our material selves, sloughing off from our souls the impurities of the previous day, permitting it to bond unsullied with the supernal. But as is often the case we stir disturbingly in our sleep plagued by the many emotional forces of jealousy, anger and worry that assault us during our wakeful hours, remaining unable to ward off their influence so easily, that prevents our pure souls from disengaging and connecting to the celestial.

The key to ‘resting in peace’ each night lays in the previous sentiment, ונתתי שלום בארץ; I will provide peace in the land. The peace here refers not to external foes, but rather to our inner demons.

The Holy Kohen of Tzefas teaches that the blessing of peace that is promised here on terra firma will emulate the peace on high, which exists among the angels who exhibit ‘no hatred, jealousy or contention among themselves’. We too, if we follow in His statutes, will merit to be untainted by these forces that impede our ability to sleep in peace.

The Ozherover Rebbe in his masterful Be’er Moshe, adds a beautiful interpretation on a verse in Koheles. Shlomo HaMelech relates how ‘The sleep of the laborer is sweet, whether he eat little or much, but the satiety of the rich does not allow him to sleep’. The simple message here is that the wealth of the rich do not allow him to sleep since he constantly worries that he may lose it and is also anxious about increasing his wealth. The simple laborer is happy with the meager wages he earns, fearing not loss as it is so inconsequential, and has no ambition for more.

Alternately, the verse may also be intimating how the laborer is generally happy, but when he observes ‘the satiety of the rich’, it arouses a jealousy that ‘does not allow him’, the laborer, ‘to sleep’.

Until that day arrives we will battle insomnia, trying to get a good night’s sleep by preventing our erupting emotions from grasping our souls.

The key to achieving this goal lays in realizing that each one of us is unique, and have precisely what we need to fulfill our unique mission here on earth. The problem is we don’t appreciate who we are and the strengths and qualities we each possess.

Rav Wolbe in his Alei Shur offers a novel interpretation on the verse ורקב עצמות קנאה (משלי יד ל), but jealousy is the rot of the bones.

The common understanding is that jealousy is self-destructive causing one’s very bones to rot by self-induced stress. He suggests just the opposite. It is precisely because we view ourselves as inferior and merely a ‘sack of rotten bones’ that we are driven to jealousy and desirous of what others possess. The day we accept our self-worth and appreciate our unique gifts is the day we defeat angry and self-defeating jealousy.

I discovered a most fascinating gematria in the Sefer, Pirushim Nechemadim, authored by Reb Naftali Chaim Gutman.

There is a tradition that the our name as a nation, ישראל , is an acronym for the idea that, ש ששים רבוא אותיות לתורהי, there are 600,000 letters in the Torah that correspond to the 600,000 core souls of the Jewish nation that stood at Mount Sinai. The numerical value of this notion is 2,633.

The promise of the verse ונתתי שלום בארץ ושכבתם ואין מחריד, I will provide peace in the land and you will lie down with none to frighten you, adding 1 for its כולל; entirety, equals the same.

When everyone of us will focus on each of our own personal attributes, realizing no two of us are the same, and that we are each equipped with exactly what we need to complete the ‘Sefer Torah’ called 'ישראל', that is when we will finally merit to defeat the demons that hassle us and finally ‘rest in peace’!

באהבה,

צבי יהודה טייכמאן