A few weeks ago I was tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep. It was that coffee I’d had at 8pm—I needed an extra jolt to stay awake, but hadn’t realized it would keep me up till dawn!
It must have been around 2am when I heard my three-year-old, Avigayil, come into our room and head straight for my wife’s bed. She was crying — hysterically — that she couldn’t find her toys.
Why does she need her toys at 2am?? I wondered.
I watched my wife get up groggily and follow her back to her room. The whole time Avigayil was crying hysterically that she needs her toys, and insisting that Shevy help her find them. You see, she likes to sleep with some dolls and other small toys next to her in bed, and they must’ve fallen out.
So Shevy got down on the floor to search for them, trying not to wake the rest of the kids. She found some of the toys and put them back in the bed next to Avigayil. But Avigayil noticed that one toy was still missing and started crying again, insisting she needs them all! Finally, with all the toys back in her bed, she lay down and fell asleep instantly. And my exhausted wife headed back to bed.
Watching all this, I first wondered: How on earth did she even notice her toys were missing at 2am? She was fast asleep. Why does she even need them at that time of night? I mean, she isn’t exactly playing with them! How did she notice that one small toy was still missing when all the others were there? Finally, how did she fall asleep again instantaneously?!
And I realized there is a tremendous lesson we can see in this encounter.
For my daughter, her toys are the most important thing in her life. She loves them, cherishes them, so much that it jolts her awake when they fall off her bed in the middle of the night.
When something is off balance in your life, you notice and it keeps you up.
King Solomon writes in Shir Hashirim, “I am sleeping but my heart is awake.” Even when we fall asleep spiritually, our heart is awake. Yes, we live in a physical world and have to involve ourselves with physical things. We have to make money, eat, etc. Nevertheless, we should realize that our most precious possessions are the Torah and mitzvot G-d has given us. Even in the middle of the night, when we are groggy and distracted, we should be aware that “My heart is awake” to Torah and mitzvot.
Let us all prioritize and cherish the most important items in our lives!