I want to tell you something. The Halacha (Jewish law) in Shulchan Aruch says something amazing. It says you have to wake up like a lion. There was a guy in my yeshiva once. He was sitting there, and one morning I hear him screaming, “Ahhh!” I was like, “What’s going on? Everything okay?” I’m serious, crazy. I was like, “Everything okay?” He says, “No, Shulchan Aruch says you have to get up, you have to wake up like a lion.” “Ahhh!” I was like, “Habibi, you don’t have to scream like a lion.” What does it mean? It means that when you’re waking up in the morning, he has to have the energy and vigor, and be excited to serve Hashem. You understand? That’s what it means. It means that you have to wake up like a lion, like go in a lion. Have you ever seen a lion? If he’s hungry, forget about it; don’t get in his way. Have you ever heard that statement before? “Don’t get in the lion’s way when he’s hungry.” You know, majnun, don’t get wild. Successful people, what do they do? When they wake up, they want to win the day. So therefore, it says when you wake up in the morning, be excited to serve Hashem.
And one of the things that we do is Netilat Yadayim (ritual hand washing). The Rashba actually brings this down: there are a lot of reasons why we wash Netilat Yadayim, and one of the reasons is that we’re like a Kohen (priest), we would do that, when he would perform the service of God in the Beit HaMikdash, he would wash his hands, right? When you wash your hands, we’re saying, “Hashem, we’re going to serve You. Everything that we do today is going to serve You, whatever we do.” And whenever we wash our hands, you don’t have to be like that Kohen—like, we’re serving Hashem. Yeah, that’s why every single morning, when you wake up, you have to have a feeling of excitement to serve Hashem. You feel it? You might not be in the mood. It’ll make a difference. Be excited: “Yeah, let’s go. Let’s do this. Let’s go. Let’s do this. Let’s do this. Let’s do this. Let’s do this. Let us make it happen.” Not physically like that. So that doesn’t mean physically go. No, it means getting up and going strongly.
And it says that when a person is saying that—by the way, there were studies—if you wake up right away and go majnun right away, it can be a heart attack, right? The time it takes in the morning is the same as the time that your heart rate could calm it down before you wake up. It’s healthy for you.