Welcome to our Daily Bitcachon-Perek Shira series . We're now up to the song of the Rooster. This is one of the longer passages because the rooster has multiple songs.
The first thing that the Tarnigol/Rooster says is When Hashem comes to the Sadikim in Gan Eden and He brings out all the wonderful smells and fragrances, the sadikim start to get up and praise.
So, in Gan Eden, the Sadikim wake up at a certain time, at Hatzot/Midnight.
And when the rooster does that first cocka-doodle-do, he says,
שְׂאוּ שְׁעָרִים רָאשֵׁיכֶם וְהִנָּשְׂאוּ פִּתְחֵי עוֹלָם וְיָבוֹא מֶלֶךְ הַכָּבוֹד: מִי זֶה מֶלֶךְ הַכָּבוֹד יי עִזּוּז וְגִבּוֹר יי גִּבּוֹר מִלְחָמָה: (תהילים כד ז-ח)
Let the portals open up, and open up the the gates. Let the glorious King come in. Who is that? That's Hashem.
Both the Chida and the Mabit explain these different songs or sounds of the rooster take place every hour from midnight until the morning, which is exactly six hours It starts exactly at the middle of the night, which is a perfect 12 hours in Gan Eden, where it's a perfect day.
The first and second rooster songs are made are to let God into Gan Eden.
In the third cock-a-doodle-do, the rooster says, Sadikim, get up and toil in Torah. And that way your reward will be doubled.
Why doubled? The Mabit answers that learning always gets rewarded, and when you get up to learn in the middle of the night, which is difficult, you get double the reward.
An hour later, the fourth cock-a-doodle-do of the rooster says לִישׁוּעָתְךָ קִוִּיתִי יי (בראשית מט יח) Hashem, I'm looking forward to Your salvation.
The Mabit says this is because in the merit of those people that learned Torah, the salvation will come. I'm looking forward to the salvation, which will come due to the learning of Torah. Additionally, people will pray for the Geula later in the day, and that's what this is referring to.
The fifth sound is for the man who has not heard the two previous sounds, which were saying get up. So now the rooster says to this man,
עַד מָתַי עָצֵל תִּשְׁכָּב מָתַי תָּקוּם מִשְּׁנָתֶךָ: (משלי ו ט) /Lazy man, how long are you sleeping for?
Get up already. You heard all these noises. It's time to get out of bed!
Next, the sixth sound is
אַל תֶּאֱהַב שֵׁנָה פֶּן תִּוָּרֵשׁ פְּקַח עֵינֶיךָ שְׂבַע לָחֶם: (משלי כ יג)
Don't love sleep. You will end up becoming impoverished. Get up already.
The rooster is pleading with this man, who has not yet gotten up, that it's time to get up. It's time to get out of bed. You already had a good night's sleep. It has been six hours. You slept through the night.
Finally, the seventh sound, already at morning, says,
: (תהילים קיט קכו) עֵת לַעֲשׂוֹת לַיי הֵפֵרוּ תּוֹרָתֶךָ
It is (literally) time to do for Hashem. Break the Torah.
The Mabit says that this refers to the fellow that didn't learn. The whole night passed and you didn't learn at all?
You didn't get up to learn?
הֵפֵרוּ תּוֹרָתֶךָ:/Therefore, you people did not keep the Torah
The Chida says that עֵת לַעֲשׂוֹת לַיי הֵפֵרוּ תּוֹרָתֶךָ
means It's time to do for Hashem. Learning is one thing and prayer is another. When we pray, there is a certain connection that we have with Hashem. So Hashem says, Stop learning. It's time to pray.
עֵת לַעֲשׂוֹת לַיי הֵפֵרוּ תּוֹרָתֶךָ
Learning has its time and prayer has its time. Now it's time to pray.
That is the beautiful messaging of the Tarnegol.
And as the Chida tells us, every morning we say Hanoten LaSechvi Binah L'Havhin Ben Yom u'ben Laila because it's the rooster that differentiates the time. They didn't have clocks back then. The mission of the tarnegol is to wake us up and get us ready for the learning that must be done (or should be done) throughout the night.
People used to do these things. People used to get up in the middle of the night to learn. Even as recently as the last generation, great people got up. Rav Elyashiv got up at about two in the morning. Rav Moshe Feinstein got up at four in the morning. We don't have the strength that they did. They got up early and used their night time for learning, and that is the message of the rooster.
