The Soul of Shabbos by Reb Shlomo Carlebach Selections prepared for Congregation Kehillat Jacob, New York, 5751. Other selections transcribed by Rabbi David Bramchek for "Joys of Judaism", 5749. 
The holy Shabbos, the most longed for day, is the day which gives us the strength to begin again. Three things are called chemda, which means longing and wanting in an absolute, crazy way (holy craziness): Shabbos, the Torah, and Israel. A true Jew is possessed by this holy, incurable craziness. A Shabbos Test. If you want to know how much you like a person, see if you can sit with the person without doing anything. Shabbos is therefore given to you. Do nothing and show your love for Hashem. The Mitzvah of Shabbos is Shabbos: When Shabbos comes I am yearning to serve G-d in the most infinite way. During the week, my finite and infinite self are apart. On Shabbos my finite and infinite self are brought together by Shabbos-the Mitzvah of Shabbos is Shabbos itself. The Yid HaKodesh said: "Some people eat fish on Shabbos and some eat Shabbos on Shabbos". The Preciousness of Shabbos: The Soschever Rebbe, the son-in-law of the Kotzker Rebbe, said: "Imagine if I stop keeping Shabbos; I stop not because I don't like the value Shabbos has, but because it is no longer precious to me. So, when I do tshuvah I am to learn the preciousness of Judaism." Anything that is given to you by G-d you don't receive, unless you know how precious it is. I can be married, but if I don't know how precious it is, it will be nothing. Shabbos Shalom: There are some moments when I have to feel perfect, complete (shalom). Six days a week I work like a dog and can't have that feeling. On Shabbos I receive a divinely inspired feeling of serenity, peacefulness, completeness -- Shabbos Shalom -- because of its holiness one feels perfection. This day will give you the strength to 'fix' yourself during the week. You will know what to 'fix' because you will have just experienced a period of time when you had a complete soul. Shabbos is back in Paradise. Paradise is a place where everything is good, everything is holy, everything is beautiful. Paradise is a place where suddenly it's clear to me that I can fix all my mistakes. And even more so, everything I thought was a mistake, every street I thougth was the wrong street was the only way to get there. When G-d drove Adam from Paradise, he retained part of his soul to remain there. On Shabbos, G-d releases that part and gives it back to man. This is our extra soul of Shabbos. On this day we are given the opportunity to return to Paradise. The question is asked, where would Adam have gone on Shabbos if he had not been driven out of Paradise? G-d would have taken him to Jerusalem, the Jerusalem of High, which has not yet been revealed to us. Paradise is a place I know from before; Jerusalem above, I have never experienced. Now, I must be satisfied with Paradise on Shabbos; in the future we hope to be brought to Jerusalem of High. Shabbos has two faces. There is keeping the Shabbos holy, the thirty-nine laws of Shabbos, the withdrawing from the world, a non-power kind of like. But then there is the bliss of Shabbos, the inside of Shabbosa, which is a gift from Heaven. The bliss of Shabbos is even deeper than Paradise. It's a secret between G-d and me, between me and the people I love so much. Shabbos is peace because peace is secrets, secrets of the depths, of the deepest depths. Secrets are the deepest G-d revelation. A true Shabbos person is someone who walks the streets of the world and every human being he sees, he shares a secret with. But with those he loves it's the secret of all secrets. Shabbos is the strongest vitamin because its nutrients are those which can heal the soul. On Shabbos, new energy is coming down from Heaven. But the energy and its spiritual nutrients refuses to be received in dirty vessels. There are many ways we can do the cleansing and purification on our own. But for those of us who can't even that one second before Shabbos purity and holiness also descend into the world. Happy are those who can receive it and fill their heart with it. On Shabbos we say, "Shabbos hi milzok, refuah krovah livoh." Shabbos is the deepest healing in the world. Our holy rabbis teach us that a doctor can only heal a foot or hand; they cannot replace it with a new one. But Shabbos, on a spiritual level, gives us back our hands and feet. Not only this, Shabbos gives us new minds, new eyes and new ears, gevalt! The Lights of Shabbos: The lights that our Mother Sarah lit were burning from Friday to Friday. When I kindle a light in the week anyone can blow it out. However, on Friday night, the lighting of the candles is performed with such spiritual strength, that their glow lasts from Friday to Friday. Friday night is the fixing of jealousy. Jealousy comes from thinking that someone can take your place or your portion. And in the deepest depths it's my own emptiness, my own incapability to retain what G-d is giving me. But Friday night, when my heart becomes so full, so overflowing full, like the wine from the Kiddush, jealosy is wiped out from my heart, and hopefully, eventually, from the heart of mankind. Shabbos morning is the fixing of grabbing. Because what G-d gives me I don't have to steal and I don't even have to take; it's given to me. A slave takes, a king receives. The third meal of Shabbos is the fixing of self-esteem, of honor, of giving up hope. The third meal is like the World to Come, when the world will be filled with G-d's glory, with the glory of every human being, when the honor of a child is enough to fill the whole universe with the deepest of G-d's honor. Shabbos is the deepest healing in the world. Our holy rabbis teach us that a doctor can only heal a foot or a hand; he cannot give you a new one. But Shabbos, on the spiritual level, gives you back your hands and your feet. It gives you new brains, new eyes, new ears -- what a gevalt, Shabbos. Friday night is the time of seeing, of discovering the unbelievable beauty and sweetness of the world of the Torah, of people, and above all, those I love the most. Shabbos morning is a time of tasting. It's even deeper than seeing. Most people love each other. But tasting each other's soul, each other's depths -- that is Shabbos morning. The third meal, and, finally, Havdalah, is smelling, inhaling the fragrance, the beauty which is beyond seeing and tasting, the kind of depth which only my soul can fathom. Happy are those who walk the streets of the world with the fragrance of Shabbos. Shabbos invites all those who need new energy, all those who have been broken by the world of the six days, who need the world of Shabbos to make their brokeness whole again. Shabbos invites all those who have so far only felt the pain of life and are crying for the joy, the bliss, the unbelievable heavenliness of being alive in a world created by G-d. Shabbos invites all those who are tired of walking slowly, who only cover a spiritual inch per lifetime on their journeys. Shabbos invites all those who have travelled through the valleys of sadness, of waiting and waiting all the time. Shabbos is to get to the top of the mountain in one second, and there discover even higher mountains that we may have never ever seen before. Will you accept the invitation of Shabbos?