Rabbi Hoffman in the
Utah Wilderness

Prayers and Psalms for Community Members

Please daven for:

Yehoshua Meshullam ben Sara Leah [Yehoshua Hoffman]
Ben Tzion Aryeh Moshe ben Sarah Leah [Ari Hoffman]
Sarah Yehudis Krisel bat Chaya Faiga [Moreh Yehudis Fishman]
Chayyim Jonathan ben Miriam [Jonathan Blaine]
Chana bat Gittel - Chana Besser

Suggested Psalms:
For Israel and Klal Israel: 20, 83,121,130 and 142.
Tikkun ha Klali [general remedy]: 16, 32, 41, 42, 59, 77, 90, 105, 137, 150
Your age: It is beneficial to read the chapter of Tehillim for your age; thus if you are 30, read Psalm 31. [Or 30 AND 31.]

From "Jewish Spiritual Practices" by Yitzhak Buxbaum:
"The rabbis took the Hebrew word for psalm, mizmor, from the root zamar, "to make music," and related it to another form of that root (zmr), zimair, which means "to cut off" or "prune." Thus, the Psalms were said to be very effective in cutting off and fighting negative spiritual forces, pictured often as trees or briars and thorns."

From "The Bratzlaver Seder ha'Yom, #14":
You should find yourself and everything that happens to you in the psalms that you say. And all the thanksgivings in the Psalms you should say about yourself, for the kindnesses that G-d has done with you all your life."

I'll add too, that the harrowing and difficult imagery that comes up in Tehillim at times also reflects how we sometimes feel - "my bones shudder" when we read the news, why not while we're reading Tehillim, and then in the Holy Tongue, binding our terrors to their root in Ha Kadosh Baruch Hu, and redeeming them, weaving them together with the rejoicing fields and the dancing mountains.

To hear many different Tehillim read in many ways, visit Rafi Metz's Tehillim pages.