Shabbat without Niggun Feels like a Dark Prison

PRAYER WITH SONGS AND NIGGUNIM [MELODIES] OPENS ALL THE GATES OF INFLUX, AND ESPECIALLY ON THE HOLY SHABBAT WHICH IS THE IDEAL TIME TO SING TO HASHEM YITBARACH.  SHABBAT WITHOUT THE TASTE OF SONG AND NIGGUN FEELS LIKE A DARK PRISON.  THE DAILY CHIZZUK WITH RAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A.

Sunday, 2 Nissan 5782.

These are his holy words:

“The grandfather of Yitzchak David Grossman, they called him Rav Zalman.  He was found on a ship.  We are now on the way to the ‘Frankfurter’ – the Yenuka (Babe) of Karlin.  They called him Rabbi Yisrael [Rabbi Yisrael Perlow of Stolin, who was called the Yenuka or ‘Der Frankfurter,’ 10 Kislev 5629 (1868 C.E.) - 2 Tishrei 5682 (1921 C.E.).  Son of Rabbi Asher of Stolin and the 6th Admor in the line of Karlin].  He was the youngest son of Rabbi Asher [Rabbi Israel was born in Stolin to Rabbi Asher of Stolin II and Sarah Devorah, the daughter of Rabbi Elimelech Shapira of Grodzhisk.]

“He would work wonders and he had…, they hoped to get donations to buy quinine [an aromatic compound used primarily as a treatment for malaria], to buy medicine against Malaria.  Malaria is [called in Hebrew] ‘Kadachat.’

“So he’s [Rav Zalman] sitting in the ship and he’s singing songs all night.  He doesn’t care.  He sits on the deck with only a bucket.

“He sees that someone is following after him from the F.B.I., from Interpol.  He doesn’t know who this is exactly.  He sees someone following after him all the time, focusing, hiding there in some corner.  He sees eyes gaping at him.  He doesn’t know what they are conspiring to do to him.

“So he was until the morning.  He prays Shacharit alone.  He’s alone on the ship.  He doesn’t have a minyan.  He prays Shacharit until one in the afternoon with all the niggunim.  He’s a Karliner Chasid.  They sing the entire prayer.

“And he once again sings songs.  After he was awake at night, he sings songs in the afternoon.  During the day all the songs, and he goes back over them.  And another time, and another time, and Minchah already arrives.  He stands 18 hours until ten at night.  He continues the Third Meal, and then he does Havdalah and sings Melaveh Malkha.

“He finishes Melaveh Malkha and approaches this one who is tracking him, this detective from Interpol.  He doesn’t know from where he was – from the F.B.I..  Maybe he was from the Mossad.

“And he [the 'detective'] says to him, ‘Listen, do you know who I am?  Do you know who followed after you all 24 hours?  It’s me – the Baron Rothschild!’

“He heard ‘Baron Rothschild’ [and] was in shock.  The Baron said to him: ‘This is the first Shabbat in my life that I felt what is Shabbat.  I am a religious Jew, Chareidi.  I have a ritual slaughterer, but in my life I didn’t feel what is Shabbat.  I didn’t know that they sing songs, that it’s possible to dance on Shabbat.  I would always sit on Shabbat like in jail, like in prison, like a lone prisoner in solitary confinement.  [On] Shabbat, it’s impossible to do anything.  Suddenly, I felt Shabbat like I never felt in my life.

“’The whole Shabbat I followed after you, 24 hours you don’t stop singing.  You dance.  You go back over all the songs, more songs, and after this Shacharit with passion, everything with the greatest passion – I started to feel new vitality in my essence.  My blood begins to flow.  Suddenly, I started to live Shabbat.  Until today, I wasn’t alive.  I feared Shabbat [like] the fear of death.

“’Shabbat for me was something black, black, it’s forbidden to move.  It’s forbidden to do anything, and I didn’t know that they sing on Shabbat.’  He’s from France, from Germany.  There, they don’t sing.  There’s no songs.  ‘I searched for a place where they would sing.  I wanted to be a Jew, but I don’t see song.  I don’t see music.  So I pray alone with songs, with a violin, with everything until the age of 16.

“’By the Germans and French they wouldn’t sing.  They would eat, go to sleep.  They would pray quickly.  They don’t even know to pray there.  They thumb through the siddur, open, close, and leave.  And then, suddenly I have Shabbat.  You gave me Shabbat, you revealed to me what is Shabbat.  You illuminated my eyes to see what is Shabbat.

“’You know what?  What you request now, you will receive!  But one request!’

“He thought to himself.  His children walk without shoes, barefoot also in the winter.  They walked barefooted.  There was no choice.  He said [to himself], ‘I request for my children?  Fine, I’ll do hitbodedut for an hour.’  In hitbodedut he said, ‘What, I think about myself?  Half of the Galilee is already dead from Malaria!

“’I need to request from him to save the Galilee, to save the Land of Israel.  There is a disease which is out of control.  For this I’m travelling to Frankfurt.  Behold, Hashem already sent me a messenger.’

“He came to him after an hour and said to him, ‘You know what?  I’m now a messenger from the Land of Israel.  A terrible disease is out of control there.  People are dead, corpses like dominos, a game of dominos, falling one after the next.  You need to send now quinine, nurses, male nurses, doctors, female doctors.’

“’No problem.  On the spot, I’ll bring to you an entire ship with medicine, with quinine, with nurses, with doctors.’  He organized for him an entire ship.

“In this way, he saved all of the Land of Israel from unnatural death.”