The author of Bayis Chadash records that "in the days of our forefathers...people used to pray the evening service and read the Shema so early before sunset on erev Shabbos, that the rav of the city, who was one of the eminent scholars of former times, used to go out to stroll by the banks of the river after the evening Shabbos meal together with all the prominent householders, and they would return to their homes before nightfall."

From this we may differ that even though we are so and so many years before the end of the sixth millennium, "so early before sunset," we are already able now to welcome "the day which is entirely Shabbos and repose," through the arrival of our Righteous Mashiach; we are already able now to partake of the festive "Shabbos meal," and be served the meat of the Leviathan and of the wild ox, and the precious aged wine.


From a talk of the Rebbe Shlita on Shabbos Parshas Pekudei, 5744 [1984]