Connecting to Tehillim

My connection to Tehillim began when I was 12 years old and part of a bas mitzva celebration with six other girls on a Sunday morning at Congregation Agudas Achim Anshe Sphard, in Lower Park Heights. In the faded green play folder I saved from the 50s is a cantata on “The Seven Days of Creation,” written by Rabbi Harry Bolensky. In the cantata, Rabbi Bolensky wrote “King David looked up and sang Hashamayim misaprim kvod Kel, uma’aseh yadav yagid harake’ah, the Heavens declare the glory of the Lord, and the sky testifies to the work of His hands.” Because I only had a Sunday School education, I needed the transliterated words. My Hebrew wasn’t good yet, but the message was clear: King David in this psalm said, Look up to G-d and appreciate the beauty He created. That was my first contact with Tehillim.

Decades later, I was living in Atlanta, and Morah Dena Friedman, who had moved to Atlanta from Yeshiva Lane in Baltimore, invited me to her home to recite Tehillim. Although by that time I prayed Shemoneh Esrei in Hebrew, anything new I read slowly, and most of the Tehillim were new to me. Morah Dena was patient and invited me back the next week.

With practice, I connected to several perakim of Tehillim that touched my heart. I read them over and over until I was comfortable with the Hebrew. So when my father, a”h, was in surgery at Sinai hospital, I flew back to Baltimore and recited perek 130, which mentions a reprieve in the morning. That gave me courage that my dad would make it.

For me, courage is one of the major gifts of reciting Tehillim; another is comfort. On the El Al plane, taking my first husband, a”h, for burial in Israel, I was surrounded by girls flying off to seminary. In my deep state of mourning, I tried not to make eye contact with their shining faces, so I started reciting Tehillim, the only prayers that I, as an onan, could say. By evening, I had read perakim 1 to 30. My good friend accompanying me started at 50. “We’re not going to finish,” I told her.

“I have an idea,” she said and jumped out of her seat. The girls behind us were on their way for a year of learning in Maor. They offered to give out the rest of Tehillim and leave the last perek, 150, for me. That’s how, over 13 years ago, a plane full of girls arrived for seminary in Israel reciting Tehillim in the merit of Yaakov Tzvi ben Levi Yitzhack, a”h, who was being taken to his resting place.

Shaindy Kappel, in the Five Towns of New York, wanting merit for a young girl battling a disease, separated Tehillim into 24 booklets. She sent out boxes of them across the globe. Several boxes arrived in Atlanta. I sat around a table with other women reading Tehillim from the pamphlets in hopes of finishing all 150 perakim. We read Tehillim when Jews in Israel were in danger, on Dovid Hamelech’s yahrtzeit, on Tisha B’av afternoon, and at simchas. On Shabbos afternoon at Ner Hamizrach, a Sephardic shul, we recited Tehillim for singles. On Sunday morning, in someone’s home, we recited Tehillim for cholim. And on the other side of town, Morah Dena, now rebbetzin of Congregation Ariel, led a group in her home just as she once did when she first came to Atlanta.

Today, on my cell phone, I’m on rolling Tehillim. I click on to the What’s App and take the next one or more pesukim for refuah sheleima or shidduchim for members of the Atlanta and Baltimore communities. Also, since I moved back to Baltimore, I try to call in to the Tuesday night Tehillim group for singles that my neighbor first introduced me to. In person or on the phone, I’m still the one who finishes last, but the beautiful words of Tehillim continue to touch my heart. Hopefully, my words join with the prayers of others in reaching the throne of Hakadosh Baruch Hu.                          

Highlighting Tehillim Groups

Almost four years ago, after I married and moved back to Baltimore, my neighbor invited me to a weekly Tehillim group davening for singles in a home on Cross Country. Begun in 2003, about 15 women met every Tuesday evening to complete the book of Tehillim for single girls over 25. Now, because of COVID-19, they’re meeting on the phone. After the book of Tehillim is completed (usually in about 15 to 20 minutes), a prayer for shidduchim is said, along with the Hebrew names of the girls. Then a girl’s name is spelled out in perek 119 on a rotating basis. Later in the week, a dedicated group of challah bakers recite lehafrish challah in merit of that girl.

“Names are coming off the list,” says my neighbor, “but not fast enough.” She encourages all those interested in reciting Tehillim to conference call with us on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. “Although I love meeting in person,” she says. “It’s definitely easier on the phone.” To become part of this Tehillim group or bake for these girls, please text Dina Steinharter at 973-356-5314.

About 13 years ago, when a member of her family became ill, Chavi Barenbaum, one of the founders of the shidduch Tehillim group, started a phone Tehillim call for cholim (the sick). A small, devoted group of women connect by phone twice a day: 9:45 in the morning and 9:45 at night. Together, they recite seven perakim of Tehillim:13, 20, 30, 41, 121, 130, and 142. Then everyone reads her list of cholim. In the merit of a yeshua for all who need it, they study one halacha of shmiras halashon at each meeting and read two pages from a sefer. “It’s amazing that we could complete the five volumes of Living Emunah by Rabbi David Ashear as well as other inspiring sefarim,” says Mrs. Barenbaum.

Three years ago, teachers at Bais Yaakov, led by Esther Feldheim, started a conference Tehillim call. Before moving to Baltimore, she participated in a Tehillim group in Denver. Now in Baltimore, at 8:30 each evening, 10 to 15 women recite the book of Tehillim for all needing a refuah sheleimah. Some days of the month are covered by women who prefer to say their day on their own. When the book of Tehillim is finished, Mrs. Feldheim reads the list of cholim. “A person doesn’t have to be a teacher to be part of this group,” she says. “Anyone who would like to join is welcome.” If requested through Bais Yaakov, Rabbi Yochanon Stein, principal of the upper elementary school, sends out a text reminder before 8:30 p.m. To join the conference call, dial 515-604-9705, pin 184560. 

Rochel Bernstein is in charge of the Bikur Cholim Tehillim group which began over 30 years ago. The members don’t meet in person or on the phone. Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Weinberg, zt”l, advised the group to daven for cholim with life-threatening illnesses in Baltimore. That list has extended to close family members wherever they live. Everyone who joins recites one perek of Tehillim at home daily, any time before shkia (sunset). It usually takes five minutes, and it’s not recited on Shabbos or Yom Tovim. The group would like to have three women say the same kapitl of Tehillim, so that if someone forgets one day, at least the full book of Tehillim is completed daily. In the case of longer Tehillim, the perek is shared, as in 119, which is covered by five groups of women.

Mrs. Bernstein keeps a master list of names of cholim. With their permission, the list is published every other month as a hard copy or through email. “We definitely need more people to recite Tehillim,” says Mrs.Bernstein. “Just saying these words brings kedusha into the world and credit to the ones in their plight.” To choose or be assigned a perek, call Mrs. Bernstein at 410-484-2374 or email Mrs. Shaindy Lowenthal at BaltBikurCholim@gmail.com.

Transforming Ourselves Through Tehillim

To get deeper insight into Tehillim, I contacted Baltimorean Mrs. Rivki Segal, former director of The Rebbetzin Freida K. Hermes Women’s Institute of Torah (WIT). Mrs. Segal, who made aliyah in 2005, has taught Tehillim to hundreds of women in Israel as well as virtually to students in Maalot Baltimore. She is the author, assisted by Dr. Lisa Aiken, of a new book Living Tehillim. The title is the same as the name of the class she’s been teaching for the past 12 years. The subtitle, Finding Yourself in the Songs of Tehillim, is what she believes happens when we read the words of Dovid Hamelech and others tackling challenges. Mrs. Segal believes that reciting Tehillim for others affects those in need and also helps us transform ourselves. In our phone interview, she says that the first reason we recite Tehillim is that “We want to hold Hashem’s hand.” We don’t have the Beis Hamikdash, where we can get close to Him, but we have these words. It gives us a direct line.”

Unlike Shemoneh Esrei, where we ask for many things, “much of Tehillim is talking about G-d,” says Mrs. Segal. She points out that in Tehillim 27, only three pesukim are asking Hashem to “Listen to me.” Most are describing Hashem, bringing Him into our lives. The main message is that G-d is with us.

We’re also drawn to Tehillim because it is written by humans. It consoles us as we go through challenges. Dovid Hamelech was challenged by his father and siblings, and as a shepherd, a warrior, and a fugitive running away from King Shaul and then from his own son. Mrs. Segal says that if Dovid Hamelech had been born into a family that appreciated his gifts of poetry and music, we wouldn’t have Tehillim.

Moshe Rabbenu also wrote Tehillim to deal with challenges. He composed all the Tehillim from 90 to 100. These perakim “show how he’s incorporating the challenge,” says Mrs.Segal. “Challenges create the yearning to bring Hashem with us.” She quotes a pasuk from perek 91: “He should call Me...I am with him in pain.” Mrs. Segal teaches that the pain comes from a loving G-d Who is with us. We have a relationship with Him. “That’s what strengthens us.”

Mrs. Segal uses metaphors to describe the tehillim. She sometimes asks her class, “What ‘color’ is the perek?” Each song in Tehillim has its own. Each one also has its own rhythm, music, and melody. It could be a dance or drums depending on how individuals connect to its poetry. Mrs. Segal says, look at the words at the end of the last perek, 150: “Praise Him with drum and dance; praise Him with organ and flute. Praise Him with clanging cymbals; praise Him with resonant trumpets. Let all souls praise G-d.” She suggests that each person find his or her own “instrument” to connect to Hashem.

“The Hebrew words in Tehillim are kodesh even if you don’t know what they mean,” says Mrs. Segal. But she believes in the value of studying the English translations. She would love to see women take five minutes to share the meaning of one pasuk each time their group meets, whether in person or by phone. It should be an affirmation, integrating the pasuk into their lives. She encourages women and men, on their own, to choose a pasuk, write it down, and use it daily. “Put your whole self into it.” says Rivki Segal. “It transforms you and the world and connects you back to Dovid Hamelech.”