Three Sounds That Cross the World While People Sleep

Rabbi Levi said: The Holy One, blessed be He, knows the wonders that He performs for His creatures, but His creatures do not know the wonders that He performs with them. It was taught: There are three [things] whose sound travels from one end of the world to the other, and the creatures are in their midst and do not perceive it. And these are they: the day, and the rains, and the soul at the moment when it departs [from the body]. The day, from where [do we know this]? Rabbi Yehuda bar Rabbi Ila'i said: You think that this day glides along with the firmament, but it is only sawing through the firmament like this saw. And the rains, from where [do we know this]? Rabbi Levi said: "Deep calls unto deep at the sound of Your channels" (Psalms 42:8). The soul, from where [do we know this]? Rabbi Shmuel, the brother of Rabbi Pinchas bar Chama, was in mortal danger, and his companions went up to visit him. A word came [to them] and they laughed. He said: The sound of the soul of that man's brother is shattering cedars and uprooting trees, and you sit here and do not know it.