"The whole world is waiting to sing the song of Shabbos" - Reb Shlomo Carlebach

SImchat Shomo is a Yeshiva in the heart of Nachlaot, Jerusalem. We get together most shabbatot and have 3rd meal together where we sing this series of special songs to uplift the holy time of when Shabbat is coming to an end. סעודת שלישית - 3rd meal is open to everyone. Please join us some time very soon!

סעודת שלישית

Nye Zhuritze Chloptzi

Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Berditc

Bnei Heichala

The Gift of Shabbos

Mizmor L'david

In Parshat Lech Lecha, Avraham Avinu begins the journey that defines what it means to be a Jew, and asks the question that still echoes through every generation: “במה אדע כי אירשנה” — “Hashem, how will I know that this Land is truly ours?”

Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David explore Reb Shlomo Carlebach’s teachings on the Even Shlomo, uncovering why Eretz Yisrael is the deepest and most complicated question in the world. Through the words of the Aish Kodesh, the Izhbitzer, and Reb Shlomo, we learn that the promise of the Land is not a guarantee — it’s a relationship. A relationship that can only survive when it rises מעל הבחירה — beyond choice.
A connection that demands not just faith in Hashem, but a longing to hear directly from Him.

Takeaways:
– The bond with the land of Israel mirrors the bond with Hashem — it only lasts when it’s beyond choice.
– The hardest questions in faith aren’t a lack of belief; they’re part of how we stay in the conversation.
– Our generation’s holy chutzpah — to want to hear directly from Hashem — is itself a sign of Geulah.
– The question “Why is Eretz Yisrael so complicated?” isn’t a doubt — it’s a calling.
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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com

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Lech Lecha 5786: Why is Eretz Yisrael So Complicated?

Rav Shlomo Katz and the women of Shirat David open a tender gate into תפילת נשים: the gift of בינה יתירה—a woman’s inner knowing to separate עיקר (primary) from טפל (secondary). Returning to “לא תירא לביתה משלג כי כל ביתה לבוש שנים,” we hear how “snow” (the Amalek-cold that numbs holy feeling) is disarmed by a woman’s warm feeling for Hashem. With Sarah Imeinu and Rivka Imeinu as living guides, we learn how a mother’s כח הבחנה—her ability to detect what truly matters—clothes an entire home in confidence, prayer, and purpose.

This shiur is an invitation to trust that voice: to aim tefillah at what’s essential, to stop pouring koach into what doesn’t serve, and to let a woman’s daas build a bayit ne’eman from the inside out.

What you’ll hear

- “Lo tira…mi’sheleg” as Amalek’s cooling vs. a woman’s warming fire
- Rav Tzadok & Chazal on בינה יתירה: להבין דבר מתוך דבר in tefillah
- Sarah Imeinu’s clarity (גרש את בן האמה) and why Hashem says “שמע בקולה”
- Rivka Imeinu seeing through appearances: loving Yaakov, reading Esav
- Ikar vs. tafel: blessing your home by investing koach where it counts
- Why women’s tefillah is uniquely targeted—and how it protects “kol beitah”
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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com

Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

A Woman’s Ability to Detect Importance

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

Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t


Learning How to Cry Out When Things are Going Smooth

In this week’s shiur, Rav Shlomo Katz invites us to re-examine the core of chinuch: can a parent be both moreh (teacher) and chaver (friend) without blurring roles? We return to last week’s kesher nafshi (soul-bond) and learn why natural love alone isn’t the funnel—mutuality is. Around ages 12–13, many children feel, “You love me, but you don’t understand me.” The work now is to move from “I care about you” (אכפת לי) to “I’m genuinely interested in you” (מעניין אותי)—from giving gifts we think they need to discovering the gift they actually yearn for.

Together we learn:
- Why ahavah tiv’it (natural love) cannot replace a two-way kesher nafshi, and how that bond becomes the only reliable “funnel” for values to land.
- The shift from top-down instructions to du-siach (two-way conversation) that dignifies a growing child.
- “Chinuch al pi darko” as practice: joining your child’s world so Torah can join their story—and stay there.
- The “gift mistake”: giving from our map instead of their needs, and how to do a gentle birur ha-ratzon (clarifying what they want and what we want).
- The Chafetz Chaim at home: the recipe is parent-as-teacher and parent-as-friend—without surrendering boundaries.

Practical takeaways:
- Ten minutes of curiosity: This week, ask about one thing they care about (music, friend, game, class). No fixing; mirror back what you heard.
- Switch the verb: Say out loud, “It’s not only that I care, I’m interested. Teach me.” Then listen twice as long as you speak.
- Name the age-shift: Tell a 12+ child, “I don’t want to love you like a toddler. Help me love you like you are now.”
- Funnel check before mussar: Ask, “Do we have a kesher right now?” If not—build it first, speak short and warm after.
- Friend + Parent, not either/or: Clarify one boundary you’ll keep with consistency and kindness (tone, timing, devices)—so friendship never erases guidance.
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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com

Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

My Child, My Friend, My Child

Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David learn a short but searing letter from Reb Usher Freund about what happens when pain starts to crumble. Writing to a woman trapped in an agunah reality, Reb Usher validates the anguish, and then reframes it: pain can be a cleansing wash (רחיצת שמלה) that scrubs away stains; the process still hurts, but accepted with love it stops being torture and begins to reveal Or Shivat HaYamim (the primordial “seven-day light). “Ketz sam la’choshech”— there is an end to darkness, and it arrives faster when we choose patience, prayer, and love over despair and victim-identity.

Topics include:
- “Ketz la’choshech” is real: why every darkness has an end even when you can’t imagine it.
- The wash-metaphor: רחיצה מכאיבה—how cleansing pain works, and how קבלה באהבה changes the experience (not always the facts).
- Validation before mussar: being seen as the gateway to healing influence.
- Pain vs. suffering: pain can be involuntary; suffering is often a choice of stance.
- Birth pangs & geulah: why labor-level pain hints at a light that follows.
- Where בחירה sits: tending to my nefesh and avodah even when others misuse theirs.
- From “worshipping the wound” to Bnei Emunah—trading victimhood for partnership with Hashem.

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

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12. When the Pain Starts to Crumble

Rav Shlomo Katz and the women of Shirat David lean into תפילת נשים (women’s prayer) and the secret of the gates that open through a woman’s heart. Building on כֹּחַ הַהַבְחָנָה (discerning what truly matters) sourced in בִּינָה יְתֵירָה (heightened inner understanding) embedded in the feminine dimension, we trace how the Matriarchs teach us to pray in a way that Heaven receives.

With רִבְקָה אִמֵּנוּ (Rivka Imeinu) we revisit “לוֹ וְלֹא לָהּ” (answered to him, not to her) and the Chazal that imply: had she been צַדֶּקֶת בַּת צַדִּיק (righteous-from-righteous), her voice would have been first. With רָחֵל אִמֵּנוּ (Rachel Imeinu) we enter מְבַכָּה, the ongoing tears that Hashem cannot turn away from—“וְשָׁבוּ בָנִים לִגְבוּלָם.” With חַנָּה (Chana) we learn that the foundations of prayer come from a woman who became “וַאֲנִי תְּפִלָּה.” And in the merit of righteous women, the Exodus becomes the root of every redemption.

This shiur invites our daughters, sisters, and mothers to trust their inner voice and aim tefillah at the עִקָּר (the essential), so that their tears, words, and presence open gates for all of Am Yisrael.
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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com

Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

The Gates that Women Open

In Vayera, the name Yitzchak —“laughter”— opens a window into two kinds of kedushah: the holiness we build through our choices, and the inborn holiness that no failure can touch. On Reb Shlomo’s 31st yahrtzeit, we sing, remember, and learn how courageous love makes our days longer and our lives larger.

Drawing from Even Shlomo, we explore why the world “burst into laughter” at Yitzchak’s birth: Avraham and Sarah toiled for years so a new truth could enter creation: that Jewish children are born holy. From there, we look at how we can learn to see that holiness in ourselves and in others, especially our children, even when it’s covered by dust.

What you’ll hear
- Nigunim from the archives and the yahrtzeit story that shaped this week’s learning
- The two levels of kedushah: earned vs. inherent, and how to live with both
- Why Yitzchak’s birth changed human joy, and what “holy laughter” means in hard times
- Practical avodah: courageous love, giving kavod to children, and listening for the place inside that already knows what to do

Takeaways
- Your inborn kedushah is untouchable; your choices uncover it.
- Holy laughter = the shock of seeing that goodness is real.
- Give first honor to a person’s inner holiness and then coach the behavior.
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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com

Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

Vayera 5786: The Secret of Laughter on Reb Shlomo's 31st Yahrtzeit

Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David learn a fierce, yet compassionate, letter from Reb Usher Freund on what to do precisely when, in holy moments, the mind floods with מחשבות זרות—blurry, intrusive, and confusing thoughts. Instead of spiraling into self-hatred, Reb Usher reframes them as invitations to ביטול/אין: not “I am garbage,” but “I’m held and that my strength is borrowed Light.” 

We explore how recognizing our true value as receivers gives us real contro, not over what thoughts appear, but over how we respond. With Tehillim’s “הוציאה ממסגר נפשי,” the image of the loyal בהמה to its master, and Avraham’s “ואנכי עפר ואפר,” the shiur charts a path to turn rent-free thoughts into rent-paid growth.

Topics include:

- Why bad thoughts show up in good places—and why that doesn’t define you.
- “Control” redefined: not stopping thoughts, but steering response.
- Living with thoughts vs. warring with them; tasting ביטול without falling into ייאוש.
- “בהמות הייתי עמך”: learning holy surrender from a loyal animal to its Master.
- “הוציאה ממסגר נפשי”: escaping the hamster-wheel mind.
-Avraham’s “ואנכי עפר ואפר” as the gateway to deepest strength.
- Turning confusion into clarity: from rent-free to rent-due.

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

Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

13. The Gifts that Emerge from Confusing Thoughts

Chayei Sara is the world after the Akeidah: how Avraham and Yitzchak walked back into life with new eyes, and how we’re meant to daven with those eyes today.

Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevre of Shirat David learn a short, potent piece from Reb Carlebach's Even Shlomo about מיחדות—that inner point of “what’s special” inside every Jew—and why Yitzchak and Rivka’s shidduch had to be more than “compatible”; it had to be
"special meets special."

From Eliezer’s test at the well, to zeh Keili v’anveihu (a personal, beautiful connection to Hashem), to the way Yom Kippur → Sukkah → Simchas Torah reconnects us to that inner point, we map how to find our word in tefillah, our portion in Torah, and our way back when we’ve gone external.

What you’ll hear

- Why after the Akeidah, ordinary compatibility isn’t enough
- How to help our generation by linking Torah to each person’s unique nekudah (and why they’ll keep searching elsewhere until we do).
- A practical path: Yom Kippur restores the link → Sukkah expresses it → Simchas Torah rejoices in it.
- The chuppah image: the kallah “points”—zeh zivugi v’anveihu—and how to bring that clarity into daily avodah.

Takeaways

- Ask daily: What felt special in my davening today? One word.
- Give first honor to the inborn nekudah, and then coach behavior.
- Teach Torah by matching it to people’s inner point.
- If you feel disconnected: rebuild with the YK→Sukkah→Simchas Torah ladder
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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com

Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

Discovering That Which Is Special | Chayei Sara

Rav Shlomo Katz and the women of Shirat David open a living doorway into תְּפִלַּת נָשִׁים (women’s prayer) and why holy masters refused to daven without a women’s section. With the Biale Rebbe, the Sar Shalom of Belz, and Reb Aharon of Belz, we hear a simple, searing standard: if the gates of prayer feel closed, we must lean on the gates of tears, which never close. And whose tears flow most readily? “נָשִׁים דִּמְעָתָן מְצוּיָה” (women’s tears are near at hand).

We revisit רִבְקָה אִמֵּנוּ (Rivka Imeinu), רָחֵל אִמֵּנוּ (Rachel Imeinu) and חַנָּה (Chana)—the mothers whose inner voice and holy tears became the blueprint of the foundations of prayer. And we learn why certain tzaddikim delayed inaugurations, paused before the amud, or spoke first to the women on Yom Kippur night: because women's prayer lifts the room and with it, all of Am Yisrael.

What you’ll hear:
- Sha’arei tefillah / sha’arei dim’ah (שְׁעָרֵי תְּפִלָּה / שַׁעֲרֵי דִמְעָה): when words stall, tears open
- Stories of Belz & Biale: no ezrat nashim (עזרת נשים)? no davening
- Koach ha-havchana (כֹּחַ הַהַבְחָנָה — holy discernment) → targeted tefillah (תפילה)
- Chana as the source-text for sidrei tefillah (סדרי תפילה)
- How women’s kol (קול — voice) and dim’ah (דמעה — tears) raise the tefillot of the whole tzibbur
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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com

Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

Nye Zhuritze Chloptzi

Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo

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