חצות לילהThe Water Clock at Midnight

ḥatzot lailahIn Gamatria ↗

At midnight the court falls silent and the righteous are heard.

'Night was made only for study.' While a person sleeps his soul rises and testifies to the day's deeds, and the courts above sit in judgment. At midnight a north wind stirs, an appointed angel strikes it with a staff and it falls still, and God enters Eden to delight with the righteous. Whoever rises then draws a thread of kindness over himself. Kaidanover retells from the Zohar how R. Abba and R. Yaakov asked their host for a rooster to wake them. He had no need of one. A vessel of water hung before his bed and dripped drop by drop; at exactly midnight it emptied, its wheel turned over, and it clattered through the house. An old man there rose every midnight to learn. The chapter also urges the all-night vigil before a circumcision, when Elijah comes.

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