Make Your Bed

Make Your Bed: The Seventh Day

Rabbi Menachem Nissel

Every Friday night we sing Shalom Aleichem — and some have the minhag to follow it with Ribon Kol Ha’olamim, containing the words popularized by Mordechai Ben David’s classic song: Ana Melech Malchei Hamelachim… Please, O King Who reigns over kings… Ki hidlakti nerosai, v’hitzati mitasi, v’hichlafti simlosai lichvod yom haShabbos — for I have kindled my lights, made my bed, and changed my clothes in honor of Shabbos. The Mishnah Berurah, listing the mitzvos of kavod Shabbos on Erev Shabbos, also writes that in addition to setting your Shabbos table, “It’s also good to make one’s bed” (OC, 262:1).

What’s so illustrious about making a bed?

We spend a significant part of our lives asleep in our bed. When we wake up, we thank Hashem in our morning brachos for the opportunity to recharge our batteries. We say the brachah “hanosen l’yaeif koach” — thank You for giving strength and energy to the tired.

Because it’s the place we sleep, and sleep is a holy undertaking, the bedroom has kedushah. For example, they note that in Sefer Melachim II (11:2) the Kodesh Hakodoshim is called chadar hamitos, the bedroom (see Ben Yehoyada, Shabbos 119b). The Vilna Gaon teaches that Hashem created sleep to allow man to attain Torah secrets, something he can’t do when his neshamah is attached to his guf (see Rav Chaim Volozhin’s introduction to the Vilna Gaon’s commentary on Safra D’Tzniyusa).