Explanation of the Order of Kriyas Shema Before Bed

00:00 It could be, or it’s a matter of journeys. From the time a person is in his mother’s womb for nine months until he is born into this world in his physical body, there are still the 42 journeys: another journey, and another journey, and another journey, still with his mother. So the Rebbe explains [unclear]. The whole idea of journeys applies to a person’s life as a whole. It also applies to each and every day. A person gets up in the morning. All these things have a general and a particular application, as with every matter in the Torah and every aspect of a mitzvah. On the general level, the Jewish people made 42 journeys in the desert, from the Exodus from Egypt until they reached their destination, Yericho. Similarly, there are 42 journeys in the life of the Jewish people as a whole. As explained regarding the verses, Yericho points to Moshiach. Moshiach is associated with Yericho, as we also learned in connection with “He shall sense the fear of Hashem.” Moshiach will “judge by scent”—it has to do with the sense of smell. He will judge by scent. That is the destination of Yericho: Moshiach. So, in the life of the Jewish people as a whole, the entire journey is from the Exodus from Egypt until the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu. The same applies to an individual’s life. Every Jew has the 42 journeys. And the same applies to each and every day. The Rebbe says in a maamar [unclear] that when a Jew gets up in the morning, Modeh Ani is the Exodus from Egypt. When a person wakes up in the morning, he is lying in bed. His head, feet, and body are all on the same level. His soul is only in his nostrils; he does not yet have his soul fully with him. It has not yet taken its place in him in a way that gives him, in practice, [unclear] any

02:04 vitality. He has only his body, and now he begins his first movement. He has not yet [unclear]; his hands are still impure. Then he says, “Modeh Ani lefanecha”—that is the movement of the Exodus from Egypt. It is the first movement. You see, he begins to emerge from the confines of the body and the animal soul. Modeh Ani. After that comes the rest of the day’s avodah: the morning blessings, then davening, then Torah study and all the other parts of the daily routine, until he reaches the destination of Yericho. Where is that destination in the day? The Rebbe says that it is Krias Shema before bed, particularly “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit.” That is the destination of Yericho. When a person reaches Krias Shema before bed, he reaches that level, the destination of Yericho. What does that destination mean in the daily avodah of Krias Shema before bed? The Rebbe explains that the sense of smell is connected with yiras Shamayim. Yes, it is connected with yiras Shamayim. Regarding Moshiach, the verse says, “He shall sense the fear of Hashem.” In other words, Moshiach will have a sense of smell. He will be able to sense a person and see whether that person truly is as he appears on the outside. Someone may look good on the outside, but inwardly the opposite may be true. Or the reverse: someone may not look good on the outside, but inwardly he is good. That will be Moshiach’s power: to reveal what is inside. It will come from Moshiach’s yiras Shamayim. Because his yiras Shamayim will be on such a high level, he will have the sense of smell to perceive things much more deeply. An ordinary person has to see something in order to perceive it.

03:59 Sight, hearing—there is not yet... With what we see, we have to look at things and understand them. But someone who has yiras Shamayim has a sense of smell. He can sense that something is wrong. It is like the story told about the Rebbe Rashab, of blessed memory. The Rebbe Rashab said he did not want to become involved in the affairs of Agudas Yisroel. In those years, there were various initiatives that many great Torah leaders joined, but the Rebbe Rashab stayed out of them. He did not want to take part, and he could not explain why; he said he sensed that something was wrong. When the whole Zionist movement was beginning, in its early years, in the 5660s, many rabbis, tzaddikim, and rebbes were involved, but the Rebbe Rashab kept away, and people did not understand why. Everything seemed completely holy. The Rebbe Rashab said he sensed that something was wrong. So Rabbi Chaim Davidzki[?] asked him how he could rely on a feeling, on something like that. He answered that a Jew whose yechidah, the innermost level of the soul, shines within him can rely even on his sense of smell. In other words, the sense of smell comes from yiras Shamayim. What makes someone sense something? Did you read something? What is it? Did you read something about it? Tell me, tell me. Huh? Is it connected to something you learned? Did you hear something strange? Tell me. Yes, there is such a concept, and it is brought in the books. In other words, this sense of smell comes from yiras Shamayim. Through yiras Shamayim, a person has the ability to rely even on a feeling, even when he cannot explain it and cannot see or understand anything overtly. He has no explanation. That is the sense of smell. So that is the point

05:56 here. The point about fear of Hashem, about “He shall sense the fear of Hashem,” is the avodah of genuine yiras Shamayim, of truly fearing Hashem. When you have genuine yiras Shamayim, you can also sense things. Sometimes you cannot explain it or identify the source, but you can sense that this is something to be careful about. Something here is not right. Something here smells off. This is a very, very fundamental point in avodah. Look, there are things explicitly written in Shulchan Aruch. Shulchan Aruch says they are forbidden, so they are forbidden. There are things that Shulchan Aruch does not explicitly say are forbidden. There are things that perhaps are written there, but you do not know where. And there are things that really are not written there. Sometimes, with these matters, you need to be able to sense things. You need that feeling, that sense of smell: “This doesn’t seem appropriate to me; something here smells wrong.” It may be fine, but something here is not going as it should. When a person has that feeling, it protects him. When does a person have that feeling? When he has yiras Shamayim—when he truly fears Hashem. There is a well-known story about Itche der Masmid. Itche der Masmid was a model of yiras Shamayim. The story took place during a famine in Leningrad, or something like that, when there was nothing to eat. There were two, two, two bakeries. One bakery was mehadrin min hamehadrin, and the other was also kosher to a high standard, but not quite as high. In short, he was very, very strict, so he was extremely careful and would eat only from the bakery with the highest standard. But there was no

07:56 food there. For a while, there was simply nothing to eat from that kosher bakery—nothing at all. Several days went by without Itche eating, and people thought he was going to die. So they decided to trick him. In short, they brought him some food and told him it was from the oven at Knaפל’s[?] bakery, a mehadrin bakery[?]. So he went and washed his hands, and began. Then he started making all sorts of preparations. He began to say the blessing, but it took him a very long time to say it, and he kept smelling and smelling and smelling as he said the blessing of Hamotzi, until he fainted. That was it—he fainted. They had to take him to the hospital. That is the story, in short. Yes, but in the end—what had happened? It was bread from a place whose bread he would not eat. Even though he did not know it, he had a feeling that something was wrong, and he could not bring himself to eat it. There are many such stories about chassidim. They had this sense, this feeling, and it saved them from many pitfalls. You see, that is the meaning of “He shall sense the fear of Hashem.” The Rebbe says in one of the maamarim that, in our avodah, this is the avodah of Krias Shema before bed. Krias Shema before bed comes after the entire day’s avodah. Throughout the day, a person does all kinds of things, all kinds of activities and mitzvos, here and there. At the end of the day, he has to take stock of everything he has done. Then he says Krias Shema before bed and does teshuvah for the things that call for teshuvah. And after all that, when a person has reached the very end of the day—if only—what is the last thing he says? “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit; You have redeemed me, Hashem, G-d of truth.” What does that mean?

09:45 “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit”? “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit” is mesirus nefesh for G-dliness. In the simple sense, it means I am giving my soul to Hashem as a deposit. When we go to sleep, we entrust our soul to Him for safekeeping and say: You are the guardian of this deposit. Hakadosh Boruch Hu takes the soul, guards my deposit, and returns it to me tomorrow. That is the simple meaning. But according to Chassidus, “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit” is about feeling G-dliness. This is a Jew’s response after all the work of the day: he gives himself over to G-dliness. It is the mesirus nefesh for G-dliness that sums up his entire day’s work. As the Rebbe writes in one of the maamarim: Everything I worked for, everything I accomplished—I keep none of it for myself. I give it all over to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. During the day, a person may have done a great mitzvah, learned a lot of Torah, performed mitzvos, helped another Jew, and done all kinds of good things. After all, he did them. So he might think: I have a lot to show for myself. I learned, I accomplished, I did, I built. I remember all the good things I did. Then we say, “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit.” Everything I accomplished, all of it, is handed over. This is also written in one of the maamarim. As it relates to the soul’s avodah, “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit” means the mesirus nefesh with which a Jew gives himself over to G-dliness. And that is “and he will perceive by scent.” That is the meaning of “and he will perceive by scent through fear of Hashem”—this response. It connects Jews to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and it gives us the strength to

11:39 have a sense of smell, so we can discern what is permitted, what is forbidden, and how to serve Hashem in a genuine way. So that is the idea. This is also part of what a birthday is about. The whole point of a birthday is that a person should take stock of the year, as the Rebbe writes, and each year is a new period in a person’s life. That is included here as well. Just as every day has Krias Shema before bed, which marks the end of one day and the beginning of preparation for a new one, so too each person has a birthday. Then he takes stock of everything that happened during the year, and there must be “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit”: he gives himself over to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and gives over to Him everything he has done. Then he begins a new period, a new existence. The Rebbe once explained the verse, “But those who hope in Hashem shall renew their strength.” I heard this from the Rebbe several times. In one of the later years, the Rebbe repeated it many times. Someone who has hope, faith, and trust in Hakadosh Boruch Hu exchanges his strength. What does “exchanges his strength” mean? At night, a person goes to sleep and gives Hakadosh Boruch Hu the strength he worked and toiled with that day, and then he is given new strength. “They shall renew their strength” means an exchange: we give Hakadosh Boruch Hu the old strength, and He gives us new strength. This happens every day. A person goes to sleep; we say Krias Shema before bed so that

13:31 we go to sleep having said Krias Shema before bed. He gives himself over through “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit,” and then he is given new strength, so that the next day he can begin anew, refreshed, with new capacities. In general, Krias Shema before bed is the beginning of a chossid’s avodah. The approach discussed in the maamarim about Krias Shema before bed explains the words, “And there was evening, and there was morning, one day.” There are three elements here. “There was evening” is the avodah of the night. “There was morning” is the avodah of the morning, of Shacharis. “One day” is the avodah of the entire day. In other words, the order is first “there was evening”—Krias Shema before bed. Then comes “there was morning”—Shacharis. After that comes “one day.” That order is precise: each stage prepares for the next. First there has to be “there was evening.” So the foundation, the beginning of the avodah, is Krias Shema before bed. Once a person has done that, the next day he can have “there was morning”—the avodah of getting up and of the morning itself. According to Chassidus, for the morning’s avodah to begin as it should, it depends on how one says Krias Shema before bed. “In the evening, weeping may lodge; but in the morning, song.” The weeping at night is Krias Shema before bed. Through that comes “in the morning, song”: in the morning he can have the avodah of davening. When can davening be as it should? Only when it has been preceded by Krias Shema before bed.

15:47 The reason is straightforward. What is the avodah of davening? Chassidus speaks of tefillah as related to the expression “one who joins pieces of earthenware.” Tefillah means connection. Chassidus explains that the avodah of davening is for a person to connect himself to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Davening is a time when a person connects to his source, connects to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, seeks Him, and wants to draw closer to Him. So the whole purpose of davening is to awaken some feeling, some vitality, some closeness, some stirring of love or awe. I do not mean the level of love and awe discussed in chapter 50, or even what we learned before chapter 50. But at least some feeling. You contemplate the words of davening, and through that a desire and thirst for G-dliness begins to stir. For that to happen, you have to want it. A person needs a desire for it. If he does not feel that he is missing anything at all, he will not seek it. If he feels fine, feels good, feels that everything is all right and nothing is lacking, why would he be thirsty? He does not feel thirsty or hungry. Everything is fine; he does not even know what he is missing. There is a Midrash about the building of the second Beis Hamikdash—when studying Chaggai, we read that the elders who had known the first Beis Hamikdash were weeping as the second one was being built. Why were they weeping? Everyone

17:44 else was rejoicing. They were building the Beis Hamikdash! What could be greater? It was the greatest joy. But the elders wept. Why? Because they knew what was missing. They had known the first Beis Hamikdash and the revelations that had been there. So when they saw what there was here, they wept. When can you weep? When you know what you are missing. If you do not know what is missing, you do not weep over it. The same is true in this avodah. For you to seek Hakadosh Boruch Hu in davening and want to draw closer to Him, you need some desire to seek Him. That is what Krias Shema before bed brings about. During Krias Shema before bed, a person reflects on the soul’s descent into this world. After all, the avodah of Krias Shema before bed is the avodah of teshuvah. A person reflects on his soul: it descended into the world for a purpose—what was the intent? That is what taking stock of oneself means. There are several kinds of taking stock. There is one kind—as the Rebbe once told a bochur; I have recounted this many times. The Rebbe told a bochur in yechidus that there is Krias Shema before bed according to Chassidus, and there is Krias Shema before bed that every Jew is obligated to say. What every Jew is obligated to do is simply to ask himself each day: How did my day go? What did I do today? What did I do well? What did I not do well? A Jew does not go to sleep without that. A person needs to do it every day. It is not a particular avodah; it is not Chassidus. It comes even before Chassidus. A normal, healthy person, someone with some order in his life, who does not live in chaos and darkness—when he finishes a day, he needs to know what

19:36 What happened today? What did I accomplish? What did I do, and what didn’t I do? How did the day go? This is still before the work of Krias Shema before bed described in the maamarim. This is simply Krias Shema before bed, even for someone who works for a living. The day has passed. What did I go through today? I got up in the morning, I learned, I davened—or I didn’t learn; did I daven well? How did it go? For a yeshivah student, there was the morning Chassidus session. How was davening? How was the nigleh session? All right. There’s a daily schedule, and you have to go through this every day. Krias Shema before bed means taking stock of the day; without that, we’re not even talking. But there’s also the Krias Shema before bed described in the maamarim. There, it’s something longer, something deeper. You don’t think only about today; you think about the whole purpose of why you’re alive. Or, in the words quoted in the siddur from the Gemara, “Come, let us make an accounting of the world.” Think about the entire purpose of the neshamah. There is a neshamah—why is it here? Hakadosh Boruch Hu created me, created the world, created the neshamah. The maamarim discuss where the neshamah comes from, where it arrives and why, and where it has gone. Why did the neshamah enter a body? What am I doing here? What was the intention? And consequently, what do I need to do? Then there are the three details of what serving Hashem should have looked like, as Rabbi Tzvi Elikayev [?] explains [unclear]. How should it have been, and how was it in practice? How should it have been, how could it have been, and what actually happened? In other words, given the purpose, what should I have intended, how should I have behaved, and how did I actually behave? A person needs to break down his accounting of the soul and reflect on it. So this is already, you know, something

21:26 deeper. This is an accounting of the neshamah; life has a purpose. I reflect on that, and it affects me. With all that as an introduction, Krias Shema before bed isn’t just words. It carries a feeling that there’s a purpose to life. And because there’s a purpose, I look for it. I feel where I am, how far I’ve come, where I stand. Then comes the feeling that I’m far from G-dliness. [unclear] And I want to seek G-dliness, to draw close. Then I resolve that tomorrow will be entirely different. As the Rebbe would always say, quoting [unclear] and Kotzk, “Tomorrow will be entirely different.” Tomorrow morning I’ll get up, learn during the study session, and daven. We’ll begin a new day with a new awareness of G-dliness. And then “there was morning.” If there is “there was evening”—if in the evening I awakened with a feeling of bitterness over my distance from G-dliness—then in the morning I seek closeness. Then davening is real davening. And then there is “one day.” What does “one day” mean? It’s what happens throughout the day. Throughout the day there is the idea of “one.” What does “one” mean? In everything, he looks for G-dliness, for the glory of G-dliness. We explained the idea of “one,” [unclear], bringing Hakadosh Boruch Hu into the world. In the world, [unclear], whether in food or in other things. Throughout the entire day, he remains connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So that’s the order: “There was evening and there was morning, one day.” It all begins with Krias Shema. What I mean is this: Krias Shema before bed has two aspects. That’s how it’s explained. There is the aspect of Krias Shema

23:29 before bed as the conclusion of all the day’s work. It’s the sum total of the day—that’s one aspect. In the morning, too, it seems to me, before davening, there are preparations and a whole order of things. Then night arrives, the day ends, and you go to sleep. There’s an accounting of the soul for that day, a summing up of the day. There’s the confession over everything you did during the day, and you say, “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit.” That’s the day’s sum total, its conclusion. That’s one aspect of Krias Shema. But there’s another aspect: Krias Shema before bed is also the beginning of the next day’s work. These really are two distinct aspects of Krias Shema. One aspect is the punch line, so to speak—the summary, the end of the entire day: finishing the day as you should. And the other aspect is preparing for all the work of the following day. The Rebbe has a whole explanation of this. The Rebbe once spoke about it at length, explaining these two aspects of Krias Shema before bed according to nigleh and according to the deeper teachings. There’s the conclusion of the preceding work and the beginning of the next. It’s connected both with the night that follows the day and with the night that precedes the next day. Those are points in their own right, but in practical avodah, there are two aspects. One is that Krias Shema before bed sums up all the work of the day—the accounting of the soul—and then you say, “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit.” That is also the meaning of Krias Shema according to the deeper teachings. Why do we say Krias Shema before bed? “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d,

25:18 Hashem is One.” What is distinctive about saying Shema before bed, at night? The distinction is that you entrust everything from your entire day. You connect it with the oneness of Hashem. All day long, a person does all sorts of things, one detail after another. Then you gather up everything from the day. That is “Hear, O Israel.” You raise it to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, give it to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and connect it with “Hashem is One.” That’s the summary, the end—the ultimate completion of all the day’s work. Then there’s another aspect, the beginning: “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit.” That’s the preparation for all the work of the next day. The Frierdiker Rebbe explains this in one of his maamarim, a maamar about the Geulah. The Gemara says that before a korban was offered, there was semichah, the laying of hands. It says so explicitly here. Before offering a korban, you had to perform semichah. What is semichah? You place your hands on the animal and recite the confession. You place all ten fingers on the animal. He explains what semichah means according to Kabbalah: a person has a G-dly soul, but also an animal soul. The G-dly soul must exert an influence on the animal soul. That means giving the G-dly soul the strength to refine the animal soul. And that is the idea of Krias Shema before bed. What does that mean in our avodah? He

27:07 says that it means a general commitment of mesirus nefesh to G-dliness. Before you begin refining the animal soul—that is, before getting into all the details of how to refine it and what to do with it—there must be this general commitment of mesirus nefesh to G-dliness. That is semichah. Immediately after semichah comes shechitah. Then the shechitah begins: taking the animal soul and refining it, refining the middos, refining one’s material nature, refining the coarser middos. That is the particular work each person must do. But the preparation is semichah. What is semichah? It’s that general commitment. That’s what the Frierdiker Rebbe writes in that maamar: it’s the general commitment of mesirus nefesh to G-dliness. When do we express it? During Krias Shema before bed. “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit”—that is the general commitment. I’m saying: I give myself over to G-dliness. So there are two things here. There’s the work of the whole day, all of which you entrust to Hashem. And there’s a person giving himself over to G-dliness in preparation for the next day’s work. Now, in Tanya, we learned in Igeres Hateshuvah about Tikkun Chatzos, which is teshuvah tata’ah, and how it prepares for davening. But we know that when the Rebbe Rashab founded Tomchei Temimim, he discontinued the practice of Tikkun Chatzos. The Rebbe Rashab did not allow the yeshivah students to say Tikkun Chatzos. He discontinued it and replaced it. He said that for the students, the avodah of Tikkun Chatzos is Krias Shema before bed. Today it’s even been taken out of the new siddurim. It’s no longer there—even if you want to say Tikkun Chatzos

28:58 You won’t find it there. Only in the old siddurim. Right? When the Rebbe Rashab founded Tomchei Temimim, he arranged things so that there would be no Tikkun Chatzos. What did he say? That today, the avodah of Tikkun Chatzos is Krias Shema before bed. Krias Shema before bed is still the point. Because what is Tikkun Chatzos in Tanya? Tanya explains the whole matter of bitterness there. Today, that avodah is Krias Shema before bed. So that’s the point: if we want the day’s avodah to be as it should, we need Krias Shema before bed the night before. And what should we do? I know many friends ask what they’re supposed to do about this. People talk and talk and talk, but they don’t explain what I should actually do. Right? Today, everything has to be spelled out in letters as big as those of Kiddush Levanah. How, and what should we do? So here’s what to do: take a siddur in hand, put on a hat, put on a jacket, and stand in one place. It can be here, it can be in your room, it can be in the beis midrash, in the classroom. Yes. Look inside the open siddur, right? And it’s worth standing, or sitting, for a few reasons. One is that by then it’s already easy to fall asleep, so it’s best to do this while you’re alert. Five minutes. Think over the day’s schedule. Go through it quickly. If you want to make it easier, so you won’t have as many distracting thoughts and confusions, it’s worth having your daily schedule written on a sheet of paper. That way you can do it faster. Within a few minutes you can see: Did I get up on time this morning? What did I do at this hour, that hour, the next hour? That’s an accounting. How did the day go? That’s the day’s schedule. It should take no more

31:10 than five minutes. After that, think about a few lines of Tanya. A reasonable number of lines. A few lines of Tanya—five lines, ten lines, fifteen lines. Of course, it’s worth choosing a section of Tanya connected with teshuvah, with the avodah of the animal soul, and so on. Some take chapter 25 of Tanya. Some take chapter 30. Some take chapter 7 of Igeres Hateshuvah. It also depends on which point in Tanya speaks to each person more, which is easier for him. A few lines of Tanya. Think about those lines. Contemplate them. By “think,” I mean think about the words together with their explanation, and connect with them a little. That should take another three or four minutes, no more. Then say the text of Krias Shema before bed word by word from the siddur, and try to think about the meaning of the words as much as you can. It’s known that the Rebbe Rashab told a bochur about what it says in Tanya, in Igeres Hateshuvah: through Krias Shema before bed with intense concentration and proper teshuvah, one can cleanse all the sparks that fell there and the kelipos caused by sin. So the Rebbe Rashab said that the meaning of “proper teshuvah” and “intense concentration” is to concentrate on the meaning of the words. What special intentions? No. Simply concentrate on the meaning of the words. Focus on the words you’re saying and try to understand them. Say Krias Shema before bed word by word. Think about the words. That’s the daily avodah of Krias Shema before bed. There is also the practice of picturing the Rebbe’s face. Yes. You can do that before beginning Krias Shema before bed, or after finishing it, or both. But of course, before

33:34 going to sleep, you should picture the Rebbe’s face. Yes. That gives you the strength for everything to go much more easily. That’s the daily avodah of Krias Shema before bed. Now, from time to time—some are able to do this once a week; some can do it once every two weeks; others, at any rate, once a month. More than that is already too long an interval. A bochur needs to have a set time for it at least once a month. If he does it weekly, it should be at least once a week. If he can’t, then at least once a month, at a fixed time; otherwise he’ll keep putting it off. You want to do it once a month? It’s worth doing it on Thursday night. If you can do it once a week, find a night when you know it will happen. Tanya says to do it on Thursday night, but if there’s a farbrengen every Thursday night, it will end up being postponed. So find another night, perhaps Wednesday night. At any rate, from time to time, according to how each person feels, what he’s ready for, and what strength he has, he needs to invest more time. From time to time, a bochur should arrange to say Krias Shema before bed at length. What does “at length” mean? It doesn’t mean trying to catch angels. He simply sits down. He puts all his schedules aside. He sits down while his mind is still working, before he’s too tired. Yes. He arranges to do it right after Maariv. He takes a maamar, a maamar about avodah—perhaps one about Krias Shema before bed; there are quite a few maamarim—or one about teshuvah. Yes. And that maamar

35:31 he studies. He studies a whole maamar. It might be half a maamar, it might be a few sections, but he takes a maamar that speaks to him and studies it. He studies it once, studies it twice—each person according to his abilities. Then he contemplates that maamar. He thinks about what it says. He thinks about how the maamar relates to his life. And then he can think not only about that day, but also about some broader questions: the soul’s descent into this world, the purpose of life. Am I fulfilling my mission in life? How should I be conducting myself, and what am I actually doing? Those are broader questions. And then, of course, his Krias Shema before bed is deeper, more inward. Sometimes one also needs to say Al Chet. It says in the siddur that from time to time one says Al Chet as well. If there’s a sin for which you want to do teshuvah, you don’t say Al Chet only on Yom Kippur. The siddur says each time: “If he wishes, he may say Al Chet.” That means if you feel that today, during Krias Shema before bed, you want to do deeper teshuvah, say it too. This is the time. [unclear] That’s the point: it shakes off that sleepiness during Krias Shema before bed. It brings about a change in life. The older Temimim used to say that Krias Shema before bed matters even more than setting the table at this time. It’s known that there was a disagreement about this between the Tzemach Tzedek and Greiner[?]. The Tzemach Tzedek said, “And I will come out a tzaddik.” Greiner[?] said, “Krias Shema before bed.” There’s a story about that too. Yes.

37:28 What? Which matters more, this or that? Greiner[?] said [unclear], but we’re not going to get into those stories now. What matters is what we have here. Yes, Krias Shema before bed is a time when you think about yourself. This is the time to think about yourself. When you don’t say Krias Shema before bed, what happens—do you know what happens?—is that you think about yourself all day, and that’s much worse. Because if a person thinks about himself all the time, it’s generally easier for him to become depressed. How do you say it? Depression, sadness, despair. “I’m no good,” or “I’m doing so well.” Everything revolves around his ego and his image of himself, and so on. As it says in Tanya, this is a tactic of the yetzer hara to bring a person down. He thinks he isn’t thinking about himself, but he’s actually thinking about himself more. So have a fixed time when you think about yourself. Then, as the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya, whenever the yetzer hara comes and starts bringing you thoughts of worry about sins and thoughts of things that aren’t good, you send it to Krias Shema before bed and tell it: “I don’t have time now. I’m busy now. Now isn’t the time to deal with this. This isn’t the time for worrying about serious sins.” Look, that’s what Krias Shema before bed is for. Once you set aside ten minutes a day to think about yourself, for the other twenty-three hours and fifty minutes you can think about another Jew. You can think about the Rebbe, you can think about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, you can think about Moshiach. And for ten minutes you think about yourself. Then you put yourself in your proper place, and that brings about the change. On this

39:27 There’s the story of the Rebbe Maharash, who once spoke to a young man who said he struggled with all kinds of yetzer hara, distracting thoughts, and other things. The Rebbe Maharash told him to spend fifteen minutes every day thinking about himself. The Rebbe cites this story many times from the biography of the Rebbe Maharash. Think about yourself for ten or fifteen minutes every day. That’s the idea of saying Shema before going to sleep. The account says that the Rebbe Rashab saw this man when he came to the Rebbe Maharash. The Rebbe Maharash told him to do this work for six hundred days—about two years—and then come back. When the Rebbe Rashab saw him two years later, he didn’t recognize him. He had changed completely, because he had devoted fifteen minutes a day to working on himself. That’s the idea of “a well dug by princes.” Chassidus explains that the well alludes to a well of living water. When you dig the well, the living water is revealed. “A well dug by princes”—the digging through the material, the physical, the heavens of heavens—reveals the waters of the soul, a life of true vitality. Of life.