Tehillim 13:4 talks about the the sleep of death (אִישַׁן הַמָּוֶת), Yeshayahu 26:19 reads something like my dead bodies shall arise--awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust (הָקִיצוּ), Daniel 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence.
Sleeping is compared to death: In the Modeh Ani prayer we thank G-d for returning our soul to us after our sleep. Someone once told me the soul releases itself from the body in the dream state, leaving the body as if it were dead.
But is death also comparable to sleeping? Do we pass through a state of sleeping of some sort during the process of t’chiyat hameitim (the resurrection of the dead), when the bodies of the dead will be brought back to life and reunited with their souls. Is the phase between death and this resurrection comparable to a state of sleeping from which one 'awakes'?
Or to put it plain and simple: What does it mean to sleep and awake when referring to death? What's the difference and comparison between death and sleep if one claims the soul leaves the body.