“The Lord God cast a deep slumber upon the man, and he slept. He took one of his sides, and He closed it with flesh in its place [taḥtena]” (Genesis 2:21). “The Lord God cast [hipil] a deep slumber” – Rabbi Yehoshua of Sikhnin said in the name of Rabbi Levi: The beginning of downfall [mapala] is sleep. When a person sleeps, he does not toil in Torah and does not do any work.15Too much sleep is a recipe for ruin.
Hipil literally means, “He caused to fall down.” Rav said: There are three slumbers: the slumber of sleep, the slumber of prophecy, and the slumber of a trance. The slumber of sleep – “the Lord God cast a deep slumber upon the man, and he slept.” The slumber of prophecy – “it was when the sun was setting, and a deep slumber fell upon Abram” (Genesis 15:12).
The slumber of a trance – “No one saw, and no one knew, and no one awoke, as they were all asleep, because a deep slumber from the Lord had fallen upon them” (I Samuel 26:12). The Rabbis said: There is also the slumber of foolishness, as it is written: “For the Lord poured upon you a spirit of deep slumber” (Isaiah 29:10). Rabbi Ḥanina bar Yitzḥak said: There are three microcosms; sleep is a microcosm of death; a dream is a microcosm of prophecy; Shabbat is a microcosm of the World to Come.
Rabbi Avin adds another two: The orb of the sun is a microcosm of the supernal light; Torah is a microcosm of the supernal wisdom.