Kayadoa on the pasuk in last week's parsha Vayifga bamakom, so Chazal interpret אין פגיעה אלא תפילה and that this is the pasuk which hints to the fact that Yaakov Avinu tikken tefillas arvis. Now the Maharal says that when each of the Avos was mesakkein his respective tefilla, so not simply that Avraham Avinu chose a time of day, so too Yitzchak and Yaakov Avinu, but rather the tefilla of each of the Avos reflects the essential midda which that ov embodied. Yaakov Avinu was mesakkein tefillas arvis be'odo Yaakov when he was only Yaakov before becoming Yisrael. The Gemara in Chulin in the famous aggadeta about HaMaor HaGadol and HaMaor HaKatan, when HaKadosh Baruch Hu kavyachol is is trying to mefayeis the Levana after He says לכי ומעטי את עצמך that you'll become the HaMaor HaKatan, so one of the piyusim kavyachol that HaKadosh Baruch Hu attempts for the Levana is that yikru tzaddikim bishmech, that tzaddikim will be referred to just as you are referred to, just as you are referred to as HaMaor HaKatan, so too tzaddikim will be known by that appellation of Katan, and the first example the Gemara gives is Yaakov HaKatan. Then the Gemara proceeds David HaKatan, Shmuel HaKatan. So Yaakov, the name according to Chazal here, and of course this is elaborated in many other sources kayadoa, so Yaakov represents katnus, shiflus, lashon akev, again the shiflus, the bittul, helplessness. At night a person experiences vulnerability much more than during the day. It's obviously much more difficult to cope with darkness than with light. Cases of illness Rachmana litzlan generally intensify at night. So even on the natural level, on the natural physical plane, a person experiences his helplessness and his vulnerability more at night. The sefarim say that night is a time of din, but that on that level as well a person's vulnerability and helplessness are magnified and accentuated. But when is a person most vulnerable? At what moment is is a person most vulnerable? A person is most vulnerable when he goes to sleep. Kol zman, kol zman that a person's awake, so he's doing, he's taking care of himself, or at least he thinks he's taking care of himself. Person is awake, he can be poel. When a person is asleep, so then he's totally helpless and totally vulnerable. I think I think the scientists who study sleep say that a person actually becomes paralyzed during certain cycles of sleep. So then the help... helplessness and the vulnerability of a person is greatest when he's sleeping. The Rav in the second volume of the Yahrtzeit Shiurim has a remarkable, remarkable interpretation of קריאת שמע על המיטה. The simple reading of the Gemara is that קריאת שמע על המיטה is mishum mazikin, there's some kind of defense to ward off mazikin. The Rav explains, but is it coincidental that the defense against mazikin consists of the parsha of Shema which is identified with קבלת עול מלכות שמים? So he says no, קריאת שמע על המיטה again functions the same way as be-shochbecha u-vekumecha, as Krias Shema Shacharis and Arvis is a kiyum of קבלת עול מלכות שמים. But what is that special kiyum of קבלת עול מלכות שמים when a person is going to sleep? So listen to this, mamash hafleh va-feleh. So he says when a person goes to sleep to be mafkid rucha ביד הקדוש ברוך הוא is a kiyum in קבלת עול מלכות שמים. De-hainu, he doesn't use these words but what emerges is an incredible, incredible perspective. When we go to sleep, so we do it as a sort of natural instinctive reaction to physical need. When we're hungry, so that's again a physical need, so our natural instinctive reaction is that we eat, we drink. And when we're exhausted, so then we go to sleep again as a way of catering just naturally to this physical need. Says the Rav that through קריאת שמע על המיטה what a person is really supposed to do when he goes to sleep, it's supposed to be prefaced by a קבלת עול מלכות שמים that a person recognizes sleep consciously, premeditatedly as an act of surrender to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The raya that that's what קריאת שמע על המיטה is is that the Gemara says that a talmid chacham doesn't have to say קריאת שמע על המיטה but he should say a pasuk. What pasuk should he say? בידך אפקיד רוחי פדיתה אותי השם קל אמת. The Rav says that that's what the pshat is when the Gemara says that Hashkiveinu is geulah arichta and that's why Hashkiveinu doesn't interrupt the smichas geulah l-tefillah of Arvis. So how is Hashkiveinu geulah arichta? So Rabbeinu Yonah deals with this question. The Rav gives a different answer and he says no because Hashkiveinu again you have that theme that a person is mafkid rucha בידי הקדוש ברוך הוא and that's an act of קבלת עול מלכות שמים. An act of קבלת עול מלכות שמים because a person acknowledges again his total dependence and helplessness before Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So Avraham Avinu tiken tefillas shacharis. A person davens Shacharis when he's going out into the world, going out into the world to make his mark, to be po'el, to be mashpi'a, so he davens for siyata d'shmaya. When a person comes home at night, so a person doesn't stand before Hakadosh Baruch Hu davening for siyata d'shmaya as a po'el, as a mashpi'a. A person davens with a recognition of complete vulnerability and helplessness and the tefillah is an act of surrender. Ve-yitachen that that's the pshat, and I just want to just end with this, ve-yitachen that's the pshat in the pasuk ויפגע במקום וילן שם. So what's davka the continuum here in the pasuk? Ve-yitachen that Yaakov Avinu maybe he went to sleep right away, maybe he didn't go to sleep right away. That’s not the point, but either way what the Torah is explaining to us is that there was a continuum there, that Yaakov Avinu again as the Maharal says, so the tefillah represents the essential middah of the Avos. Yaakov Avinu again mitzad Yaakov. Yisrael obviously represents something different, something complementary and different. But יעקב אבינו מצד יעקב, again Yaakov hakatan, the helplessness, that’s what Tefillas Arvis is, the kiyum of קבלת עול מלכות שמים in surrendering, recognizing that. So that’s the continuum of ויפגע במקום וילן שם that Yaakov Avinu goes to sleep.