Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David explore the avodah of Melave Malka not as a custom but as an act of love.

Drawing from Shulchan Aruch, Gemara, the Rizhiner Rebbe, and the Shlah HaKadosh, we learn that escorting the Shabbos Queen is not about leftovers or convenience, but about honoring the Presence that filled our homes for twenty-five hours. Melave Malka stands as its own seudah—mutzav artza, v’rosho magia ha’shamayma—rooted in the weekday yet reaching Heaven.

Through niggun, food, and consciousness, we discover how Motzei Shabbos becomes the bridge between holiness and ordinary life, and how angels ascend and descend with us each week. When we escort Shabbos with song, intention, and kavod, the light of Shabbos does not leave, it lingers.

This shiur invites us to slow the goodbye, to sing the Queen out gently, and to begin the week with dignity, simcha, and blessing.

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Chapters / Timestamps

00:03 – Opening Niggun: “Esa Einai El Heharim”
04:05 – A New Hanan Niggun: “Rachmana Libba Ba’ei”
09:23 – From Song to Torah
12:57 – What Is the Seuda of Motzei Shabbos?
14:19 – Shulchan Aruch: Escorting Shabbos with a Seuda
16:33 – Maharsha: Why Leftovers Don’t Count
22:16 – The Rizhiner Rebbe: The Ladder of Melave Malka
26:34 – Angels Ascending and Descending
29:16 – Escorting the Queen with Song
31:24 – Delaying the Goodbye: Tosefet Shabbos
33:00 – The Gra’s Rebbetzin and the Power of Melave Malka
36:10 – Closing Reflections and Practical Kabbalah

Motzei Shabbos is often the most fragile moment of the week — when the light of Shabbos fades and old patterns rush back in. In this week’s Hachana L’Shabbos, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David learn a deceptively simple avodah that can transform the entire week ahead: folding.

Drawing from the Be’er Mayim Chaim, we learn that folding the tallis on Motzei Shabbos isn’t just a custom. It’s a spiritual practice. Just as a tallis is folded again and again until it rests properly, so too real shalom bayis is built through repeated acts of humility and restraint.

We explore:

• Why peace only enters a home after a person steps back from their “makom”
• How letting go — especially when you’re right — creates true blessing
• Why spilled wine, folded fabric, and Motzei Shabbos habits set the tone for the entire week
• How v’tur doesn’t erase truth, but allows truth to be heard

May we merit to carry the kedusha of Shabbos into Motzei Shabbos, and to begin each week with menuchas hanefesh, shalva, and bracha.

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Waves are loud. Waves do big things. They rise higher and higher… and then they crash. And the chiddush is: that's exactly what Hashem praises. Not the person who “arrived,” but the person who keeps trying to rise מתוך געגועים והשתוקקות — even when it didn’t work yet.

Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David learn the difference between “success” in the Western world (goal-oriented) and success in avodas Hashem: not that I made it.... but that I didn’t give up. And how real yearning (“כי זה כמה נכסוף נכספתי”) can’t just be in the head. It has to move you, even a little, into action… because davening is called avodah for a reason.

Along the way, we connect:

• The wave that falls… and comes back again.
• Aharon HaKohen’s pain, and why Hashem says: your ratzon is greater than their korbanos.
• The koach of ratzon in Chazal (even when the full “result” didn’t happen the way you dreamed).
• Looking at another Yid with רחמים: maybe they didn’t “fall” — maybe they just came down from a wave.

May we merit a Shabbos of deeper waves, deeper hishtokekus, and to look at each other with those eyes that give a person strength to rise again, and this time: deeper, wiser, stronger.

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In this week’s Hachana L’Shabbos we step back into the holy words of Yedid Nefesh and learn a line that is daring, almost chutzpadik, and yet it’s Torah-emes: “אל תתעלם” — Don’t ignore me.

How can a Jew speak like that to the Ribbono Shel Olam? Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra learn that this isn’t entitlement — it’s relationship. Like a child speaking to a parent, when the longing is real and the yearning is true, a Jew has the right to say: Abba… please don’t hide. Please don’t turn away.

We explore what it means to call ourselves “בן אהוב” — a beloved child — and why that only works if we can honestly say “נכספה”: I’ve actually longed for You. Not longing for “things to work out,” not longing for Hashem to serve me, but longing to be an eved Hashem, to live close, to want kedushah for real.

Through Rav Biderman’s teaching, the “king’s palace” mashal, and a guarantee passed down through tzaddikim: passion is the ingredient that saves a person in this world, and even beyond. Not quick fixes. Not perfection. But an inner fire that keeps trying, keeps returning, keeps yearning.

Together we explore:

– The difference between wanting results and wanting Hashem
– “Don’t ignore me” — when that’s holy, and when it’s just ego
– Practical avodah: how to build real longing so your prayers becomes honest and alive

May we be ambassadors of true passion — passion that leads to mindset, and mindset that leads to action.

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In this week’s Hachana L’Shabbos we return to Yedid Nefesh and the words: “ירוץ עבדך כמו איל – May Your servant run like a deer.” Chazal tell us: “לעולם ירוץ אדם לדבר הלכה אפילו בשבת – a person should run to a dvar halacha even on Shabbos,” and yet the pasuk they bring says “אחרי ה’ ילכו – they will walk after Hashem.” So are we meant to walk… or to run?

With the help of the Chidushei HaRim, the Sochatchover Rebbe, the Klausenberger Rebbe, and the Piaseczna, we learn that inside every Jew lives a world of hidden kochos that usually stay asleep. A frail man who can’t carry a sefer suddenly lifts stones heavier than his own body in the camps. A mother flips a car to save her children. A Yid standing in a tunnel during a siren somehow stays calm for his wife and baby. In moments of danger, we discover that what we thought was “my limit” was often just a story.

The Torah of this shiur is simple and devastatingly hopeful: those kochos were always there. They’re not “emergency powers” Hashem hands us only in crisis; they are part of who we are, usually operating at a tiny percentage. The avodah is to live with the awareness of sha’as sakana — spiritual and emotional — without waiting for another October 7th, another breakdown at home, another fire to wake us up.

Practically, we speak about:

• Why “I’ll do whatever I can” is often a lie we tell ourselves, and how to start discovering what we actually can do.
• How to feel the urgency of lanus min ha’aveirah – to run from aveirah and toward mitzvah – without needing a catastrophe.
• Everyday examples of hidden strength: putting the phone away for five minutes, not snapping at our spouse or children, taking one small step toward kedushah even when we feel totally drained.

We are infinitely stronger than we think we are. Every step we run toward what really matters brings the Ribbono Shel Olam immeasurable nachas and pulls the geulah closer – not just bimheira b’yameinu, but teikef u’miyad mamash.

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In this week’s Hachana L’Shabbos Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David learn that there’s a difference between believing in Hashem and leaning on Hashem. It’s one thing to say “I have emunah.” It’s something else entirely to make the Ribbono shel Olam your mish’enet – the crutch you actually put your weight on when nothing in your life logically adds up.

Through a piercing Midrash about a wanderer who calls himself “ben beiso shel melech” and the fiery Torah of the Piaseczna Rebbe from inside the Warsaw Ghetto, we hear that it’s not such a chochmah to believe when you can still see a plan. The avodah of a Yid is to say: “In my mind there is no way out. And still, Hineni – I lean on You.” That kind of bitachon, says the Rebbe, doesn’t block the shefa – it pulls the yeshuah closer.

This week’s kabbalas Shabbos work is simple and radical: find one place where you’re done trying to force a natural solution, and instead of spiraling, whisper: “Hashem, You’re my mish’enet. I’m putting my weight on You here.” When nothing adds up, that’s often where the deepest opening begins.

In memory of שלמה ליב בן רפאל גדליה
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In this week’s Hachana L’Shabbos we linger in Mizmor L’David and reach the line that so many of us recite without understanding: שבטך ומשענתך המה ינחמוני “Shivtecha u’Mishantecha, hema yenachamuni.” How can a shevet (rod/whip) possibly console? Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevre of Shirat David learn that what feels like the blow often becomes the very mish’enet (staff) we lean on later.

We hear a searing, hope-filled story from the recent wedding of Rachel Goldberg and Aminadav Rotenberg where 11 children who buried a parent danced to מלך ממית ומחיה ומצמיח ישועה “Melech meimis u’mechayeh… u’matzmiach yeshuah,” and we meet the Shatzer Rav’s teaching that even when the world goes dark, Hashem is still sprouting salvation from within it.

Together we explore:

• Rod → Staff: training our eyes to notice how past “patches” became future supports.
• When to speak, when to hold: why this isn’t a vort for a shivah house—it’s an inner avodah for Shalosh Seudos.
• Practical kabbalah for this week: name one place you’re fighting reality and choose, just for seven days, to lean on it with emunah.

May we taste the nechama that comes when the Shepherd’s rod becomes our staff, and may new yeshuos quietly begin to sprout.

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For more shiurim and music from Rav Shlomo Katz: https://ravshlomokatz.com

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Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David enter Mizmor L’David (Tehillim 23) through the eyes of Rav Tzadok HaKohen (ר׳ צדוק הכהן) and discover why David HaMelech shifts from לשון נסתר (speaking about Hashem)—“יַרְבִּיצֵנִי… יְנַהֲלֵנִי… יַנְחֵנִי”—to לשון נוכח (speaking to Hashem)—“כִּי אַתָּה עִמָּדִי.”

The teaching is piercing and tender: most of us turn to אַתָּה (You) only in the גֵּיא צַלְמָוֶת (valley of shadow), but the avodah is to live in אַתָּה even on the green pastures.

We sing the נוסח (melody) for Mizmor L’David that Reb Shlomo Carlebach composed at his mother’s levayah, and we learn how תְּפִלָּה תָּמִיד (constant prayer) keeps us awake to the מְנַהֵג לַבִּירָה (One who runs the “castle,” i.e., the world)—so we don’t need painful wake-ups. From a Chassid who broke his hand yet whispered “בִּנְאוֹת דֶּשֶׁא…”, to the line “עם ה׳—חוצים ים; בלא ה׳—אין עוברים מפתן (with Hashem you cross a sea; without Him you can’t cross a doorstep)”, we practice thanking, pleading, and noticing while the fridge is full and the house is calm.

Takeaways:

• Train your heart to say אַתָּה (You) in moments of plenty—set two daily “calm-time” tefillos of gratitude.
• Add a quiet Mizmor L’Todah (מִזְמוֹר לְתוֹדָה) before מִמַּעֲמַקִּים—praise before plea.
• Place שִׁוִּיתִי ה׳ לְנֶגְדִּי (I have set Hashem before me) on your phone lockscreen; touch it before you touch your day.
• When you notice success, speak out loud: “לֹא כֹחִי וְעֹצֶם יָדִי (not my own strength)”—and name one gift that clearly isn’t yours.

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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com

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