A Friendly Good Shabbos | Rabbi Pinchas Novoseller

The Sefarim tell us that in עקבתא דמשיחא the צד הטומאה will take all of its weapons and throw them at us. And surely in 2026, this is something we experience on a daily basis. It's in our face. It's all over the place. And sometimes a person can think to themselves, Why is it that I'm constantly being attacked? But perhaps there's another perspective. I met someone a few days ago, at a Simcha, and he tells me the following. There's a group of Balebatim that go to Yerushalayim Ir Hakodesh. They take a few college students, they spend an extended Shabbos weekend with them, learning with them and experiencing a Shabbos in Yerushalayim. It was an early Friday night and after the Shabbos Seudah, they took the Bochurim to a Tish. This 20-year-old college student was so overwhelmed by everything that he saw, the Rebbe eating the Shabbos Seudah, the Chasidim standing on the bleachers in full garb, swaying in perfect motion. He didn't know what to do with those feelings. He grabbed his phone from his pocket, and he calls his mom, back in the States, and he says: Mom, I'm at the craziest Shabbos meal. There are hundreds of people here. She says: I can't hear you. You got to talk louder. So he says: Mom, there's a lot of singing in the background, but this is the craziest Shabbos meal I've ever seen. She says: I can't hear you, but show it to me. So he takes his phone and begins to scan the crowd at the Friday night Tish, until he's noticed and someone points to him and says: Shabbos! Another - Shabbos! Before he knew it, he has dozens of fingers pointing at him. Shabbos! Shabbos! Shabbos! He grabs the phone and he says: Mom, did you hear that? They're wishing you Good Shabbos. Now let's go into his mind for a moment. He was being attacked from all sides, but from his perspective, it was positive. It was nothing more than a Good Shabbos wish to his mom in New York. When we look at the world and we feel like we're being attacked, we feel like every weapon possible is being thrown at us, in front of our face, in front of our eyes, we can view it, as well, as something positive, an opportunity that's being put in front of us. We know Hakadosh Baruch Hu is sending us the tailor-made Nisyonos for our benefit. It's something positive. It's something for our good. Nes-Nisayon, to elevate us, to uplift us to the next level, to give us more and more opportunities to make a Nachas Ruach to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. As we get closer and closer to the Geulah, Hakadosh Baruch Hu sends us more and more opportunities to do what we can to be Mekarev that Geulah and to be Zoche that on that יום שכולו שבת, we will all have a Good Shabbos.