Parshat Mishpatim by the Esteemed Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a - "When the Holy Shabbat Arrives, There is a Wedding in Heaven"

"Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest"

Sing on Shabbat and the child will not cut his sidelocks

"A person wants his child not to cut his sidelocks! Why shouldn't he cut them? What does he see from his father? The father sleeps on Shabbat, eats, and again eats and sleeps, and so on. If he saw his father singing with enthusiasm and dancing with the children and inspiring them, no child would cut his sidelocks, and no child would stray from the path, because the children also want to serve Hashem!"

"A child who sees his father sitting peacefully, singing and chanting at the Shabbat table, feels such goodness in his heart, such tranquility, this is his whole life, this is his entire simcha (joy)."

When the Holy Shabbat arrives, there is a wedding in heaven

"Our Rebbe said that Shabbat is like a very big wedding where there is much rejoicing and dancing with great simcha and joy. And one stands and dresses himself in his precious clothes and runs quickly, wanting to enter and rejoice there. But one needs merit to be able to see it from the cracks through a small opening (called a 'shefarina')" (Sichot HaRan 254)."

"When the Holy Shabbat arrives, there is a wedding in heaven. It is a 26-hour wedding, from Kabbalat Shabbat until Havdalah, and everyone needs to participate in this wedding, in these melodies, in these dances that take place in heaven. Immediately at Kabbalat Shabbat when we say "Lecha Dodi," Hashem enters Gan Eden to dance with the tzaddikim. All of Shabbat, as if, Hashem dances with all the tzaddikim, with all the angels in Gan Eden, and they all dance around Hashem and say "This is Hashem, we hoped for Him, let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation." Everyone sees Hashem face to face, and everyone is nourished by the illuminating light of the speculum. All that we have on Shabbat, all the simcha on Shabbat, comes from the simcha that extends from the dances and melodies of Hashem with the tzaddikim in Gan Eden, from this simcha joy descends to this world."

The problem is not everyone manages to enter the wedding

"The Rebbe says - Shabbat is like a wedding, it's simply a wedding! It is like an important and great wedding that everyone goes to and dances, but the problem is not everyone manages to enter the hall, the hall cannot contain everyone. Like at the wedding of the Rebbes where 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 chassidim come, some climb on the windows, some stand on the roofs with binoculars to see the chuppah, the great simcha, the dances of the groom, to look from some crack, from some opening, from some roof maybe they will merit to see some simcha at the wedding, maybe they will see some dance from the wedding."

Holy Shabbat is only endless simcha

"The Rebbe says - Shabbat is like a wedding, but who knows who will merit to see the simcha of Shabbat? Who will merit to see the endless simcha of Shabbat?! "But one needs great merit to be able to see from the cracks." Because Shabbat is only for dancing, for songs, for melodies, when the Holy Shabbat arrives, one must rejoice, dance, and sing."

"Holy Shabbat is only endless simcha, simcha that has no end, there must be no thought of sadness! No thought of worry! This is the essence of Judaism! The more a person is happy on Shabbat, the more he dances on Shabbat, then he can merit the divine light for the whole week. The divine light shines on a person through the simcha he experiences on Shabbat, there is no permission for a person to have sorrow and sighing on the Holy Shabbat! Without any worry! "As if all your work is done" (Rashi, Shemot 20:8), Baruch Hashem, no one is in prison, no one is in captivity, everyone, Baruch Hashem, has two challot and a cup of wine for Kiddush." "When we say "Vayechulu," the "Ten Sayings" say, "Vayechulu – then everything is finished, all the accounts, all the worries, all the plans."

On Shabbat there are no plans for the next week

"When the Holy Shabbat arrives, a person must not have any plans for what to do in the next week, no thoughts about what will be on the weekdays. When Shabbat arrives, let Hashem plan everything, if a person thinks on Shabbat about what will be, then they say in heaven "Well, it will be as he thinks."

"Why are you making plans for Hashem? You are ruining all of Hashem's plans! Hashem has endless plans infinitely better than yours! Everyone wants to give you! Everyone wants to bestow upon you! Hashem wants to give a person all the abundance in the world, Hashem wants to give a person endless good, and if a person thinks on Shabbat about what we will eat, what we will drink? What will we eat on Sunday, what will be on Monday, what will we eat on Tuesday? Then they say to him, fine, what you think we will give you - we will give you according to your understanding, but if you don't think and don't ask what will be, what will be on Sunday, on Monday, but instead strengthen yourself in simcha, then you will have such influences, such salvations that you didn't even hope for! You didn't think about them! You didn't dream about them! You can't imagine what abundance Hashem can give you."

"One must rejoice on the Holy Shabbat, truly rejoice without end and purpose, simcha that has no boundaries, and of course, remain composed. Because it is impossible to continue the kedushah (holiness) of Shabbat, the divine light of Shabbat, only through the vessel called simcha."

The Shabbat table is the key to all salvations

"The Shabbat arrives - everyone sings, everyone dances with the children, everyone! Rebbes, rabbis, heads of yeshivot, everyone sits for 3 hours, 4 hours at the Shabbat table and sings with the children. The children say words of Torah, insights, the children feel the delight of Shabbat, feel the desire, feel the desire to be devout, the desire to be God-fearing."

"The Shabbat table is the key to all things in the world, to all salvations, a person sits with his children and sings with them, then his children receive desire! Desire for Torah, desire for prayer, desire for fear of Heaven, love for father and mother."

"You don't sing? It's not Shabbat! A person doesn't sing zemirot, what will the son do and not sin, God forbid? A family that doesn't sing zemirot, then later the children wander, they have nothing to do, so they go outside, hear inappropriate things, meet bad friends, spoil other friends. The child sees that the father doesn't pray, isn't happy, doesn't sing zemirot, so he goes and commits transgressions."

The child sees the father sitting peacefully and singing, it feels so good in his heart

"When Shabbat arrives, a child needs to see his father singing and yearning and delighting in Shabbat, and then he too will taste Shabbat, taste life. Now is the time for zemirot, songs, an hour of singing zemirot, then the children receive vitality, laugh, and are happy. If the child sings with the father on Shabbat, then thanks to this hour, he can hold on until the next week. If he meets a bad friend, he will say to him "Leave me, what do you want to ruin me?" The child sees the father sitting peacefully, singing, it feels so good in his heart, such tranquility, this is his whole life, this is his entire simcha, and then he is not interested in what is on the street, he is not interested in the vanities on the street. What does a child need more than this?! The minimum of a Jew is Shabbat zemirot, without it, he doesn't even begin."

"They asked the father of Rabbi David of Lelov how he merited such a son? – He said that when he would come to sing in the Shabbat zemirot the tune "And may they merit to see sons and sons of sons engaged in Torah and mitzvot," he would say it with such tears, such devotion, for at least half an hour, that he would merit to see sons and sons of sons."

Courtesy of 'Tzama Nafshi'