Sefer HaMinhagim: Shabbos

[On Friday] one reviews each verse of the weekly Torah reading twice, followed by [the Aramaic paraphrase known as] Targum Onkelos.[193] The Haftorah is also read, and if Rosh Chodesh falls on Shabbos, or when two sidros are combined, and the like, both of the possible passages are read.[194]

When he had pared his nails, it was the custom of the Rebbe Rashab to burn a splinter of wood together with them.[195]

On the eve of Shabbos [i.e., before sunset on Friday] and on Shabbos morning, one immerses oneself in a mikveh.[196]

Notes:

(Back to text) The source for the above paragraph is HaYom Yom, p. 66. [In this context, to "review" means to intone audibly, following the cantillation symbols of the Scriptural text. The common Hebrew abbreviation for this triple reading of each verse is Sh-M-O-T, the acronym of shnayim mikra ve'echad targum - "the Scripture twice and the translation once." In Yiddish this review is known as maavir-sedra-zain - "going through the weekly reading." A wealth of sources on this subject have been assembled by R. Shmuel Laufer in Otzar Shnayim Mikra VeEchad Targum (Heb.; 1990).]

(Back to text) This obviously applies only to an individual who is reviewing the parshah privately; the congregant who intones the Haftorah [in synagogue] on Shabbos reads only the passage appropriate for the particular Shabbos.

(Back to text) HaYom Yom, p. 54.

(Back to text) This practice was handed down by the early chassidim, on the authority of the Baal Shem Tov.
"Immersion in a mikveh before the [morning] prayers on Shabbos has served chassidim as a spiritual promise - that their prayer be characterized by measured meditation and by the arousal of the soul as it cleaves to its Maker." (Sefer HaSichos 5702, p. 19.) See also Likkutei Torah, Parshas Savo, p. 43b.
See also Kavanas HaMikveh [of the Alter Rebbe] and Kavanas HaMikveh of the Baal Shem Tov in the Siddur im Dach (p. 156a ff.); there, it will be noted, these meditations are placed immediately before the passage on the inauguration of the Shabbos. See also Seder Hisnahagus Erev Shabbos ("Procedure for the Eve of Shabbos") in Likkutei Maharich, where further sources are indicated.