Prayer with songs and melodies opens all the gates of abundance—especially on Shabbos Kodesh, which is the most choice time to sing and play music to Hashem.

The daily chizuk of The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a: A Shabbos without the taste of melody and zemiros feels like a dark prison.

Tuesday, 11 Cheshvan 5785 — these are his holy words:

“The grandfather of Yitzchak David Grossman was called Rabbi Zalman. He was on a ship—now we’re on the way to the ‘Frankfurter,’ the Yanuka of Karlin. His name was R’ Yisrael (Rabbi Yisrael Perlov of Stolin was known as: the Yanuka, or ‘der Frankfurter’; 10 Kislev 5629 – 2 Tishrei 5682. He was the son of Rabbi Asher of Stolin and the sixth Rebbe in the Karlin dynasty). He was the youngest son of Rabbi Asher (Rabbi Yisrael was born in Stolin to Rabbi Asher of Stolin II [the ‘young Rebbe’] and to Sarah Devorah, daughter of Rabbi Elimelech Shapira of Grodzisk).”

“He would perform wonders, and he had… They hoped he would obtain donations to buy quinine (quinine is an aromatic compound used mainly as a medicine to treat marsh fever—malaria), to buy medicines against malaria. Malaria is a fever.”

“So he’s sitting on the ship, and he sings zemiros all night. He doesn’t care—he sits on the deck alone with a bucket.”

“He sees that someone is following him—from the FBI, from Interpol—I don’t know exactly who it was. He sees someone tailing him the whole time, focused, hiding there in some corner. He sees eyes fixed on him. He doesn’t know what they’re plotting to do to him.”

“That’s how it is until morning. He prays Shacharis alone—he’s alone on the ship, he has no minyan. He prayed Shacharis until 1:00 in the afternoon, with all the melodies. He’s a Karlin chassid—they sing the entire prayer.”

“And again he sings zemiros. After being awake at night, he sings zemiros at midday—during the day, all the zemiros, and he repeats them. Again and again. And then it’s already Minchah. He stands for Shemoneh Esrei, and until 10:00 at night he continues Seudah Shlishis. Then he makes Havdalah and sings Melaveh Malkah.”

“He finishes Melaveh Malkah and approaches the one who had been spying on him—the detective from Interpol, I don’t know where he was from, from the FBI—maybe he was from the Mossad.”

“And he tells him: ‘Listen, do you know who I am? Do you know who followed you for the full 24 hours? It was me—Baron Rothschild!’”

“Baron Rothschild heard this and was shocked,” the Baron said to him: “This is the first Shabbos in my life that I felt what Shabbos is. I’m a religious Jew, chareidi—I have a shochet—but I never in my life felt what Shabbos is. I didn’t know that people sing zemiros, that you can dance on Shabbos. I always used to sit on Shabbos like in a prison—like a jail, like some isolated dungeon. Shabbos—you can’t do anything. Suddenly I felt Shabbos like I never felt in my life.”

“All Shabbos I followed you. For 24 hours you don’t stop singing—you dance, you repeat all the zemiros, more songs, and after that Shacharis with fiery enthusiasm. And everything at the peak of enthusiasm—I started to feel new life in my bones. My blood started to flow. Shabbos—suddenly I began to live. Until today I wasn’t alive. I was terrified of Shabbos—deathly afraid.”

“Shabbos was, for me, something black—black, black. Forbidden to move, forbidden to do anything—and I didn’t know that people sing on Shabbos. I’m from France, from Germany—over there they don’t sing. There are no songs. I looked for a place where they sing. I wanted to be a Jew, but I don’t see singing, I don’t see zemiros. So I would pray alone with songs—with a violin, with everything—until age 16.”

“Among the Germans and the French they wouldn’t sing. They would eat and go to sleep. They pray quickly—they don’t even know how to pray there. They flip through the siddur, open, close, and go—that’s it. Suddenly I have a Shabbos. You gave me Shabbos. You revealed to me what Shabbos is. You lit up my eyes to see what Shabbos is.”

“You know what? Whatever you ask for now—you’ll receive! But one request!”

He thought to himself: “His children are walking without shoes—barefoot even in winter. They went barefoot; there was no choice.” He said (to himself): “Should I ask for my children? Fine—I’ll do an hour of Hisbodedus.” In Hisbodedus he said: “What am I thinking about myself? Half the Galil has already died from malaria!”

“I need to ask him to save the Galil, to save Eretz Yisrael. A disease is raging—this is why I’m traveling to Frankfurt. Look—Hashem is already sending me a messenger.”

“He came to him after an hour and said: ‘Do you know what? I am now a messenger from Eretz Yisrael. A terrible disease is raging there. People are dying—casualties like dominoes, like a domino game, falling one after another. You must send quinine now—nurses, orderlies, doctors, women doctors.’”

“‘No problem. On the spot I’ll bring you a whole ship with medicines—with quinine, with nurses, with doctors.’ He organized an entire ship for him.”

“That’s how he saved all of Eretz Yisrael from an unusual death.”