Yet again there is a crisis for a religious family in Chicago. A young woman was rushed home from a seminary in Israel to undergo surgery for a malignant brain Tumor. I pray for her complete recovery. There is a Minhag (custom) in Klal Yisroel to recite Tehilim during a time of crisis. This was again the case here. Various Tehilim groups were called and recital of Tehilim was done.
I have never understood this practice and have yet to see a satisfying answer as to what benefit there is to it. Why is saying verses in Hebrew written by David HaMelech 3000 years ago that have little to do with our situation now of any benefit? The fact happens to be that the vast majority of those reciting Tehilim do not understand the meaning of the words they are reciting. If they have Kavanah, (and I assume most people do) their thoughts are either on the pressing issues of our time or on a particular Choleh or Cholim that the Tehhilim is being said for. The portions of Tehilim that are often recited have little if any relationship to the situation nor is the meaning of each Tehilim really understood by most of those reciting it.
So when there is a call, even in times of crisis to public prayer and the "prayer" is verses from the Psalms that are not understood by those saying them and in any case not exact in expressing what we are asking God for, I do not jump up and salute. Instead I soberly reflect on whether there is any efficacy of the entire public Tehillim enterprise. This does not mean that I do not ever participate. I have done so many times, but when I do, I do so with a grain of salt... a huge doubt resides in my mind as to whether we are really doing anything at all.
One explanation I have been given from a Sefardic Rav here in Chicago, Rabbi Daniel Raccah is that the purpose of saying Tehhilim B'Eis Tzrah (in times of crisis) is to demonstrate our Dveikus to God. In effect we want demonstrate to Him by saying David HaMelech's Tehillim that we are close to Him and hope that when David HaMelech asked that God accept his Tehillim that He indeed did so.
If D'Veikus is all we are doing in the saying of Tehillim why not do it in a way that would be more understandable to those participating. Why not for example mandate a public Shiur in Mussar or Mishna or Talmud or Parsha ar better yet on relevant Halachos and Hashkfos dealing with the crisis at hand... or the Halachos of prayer with respect to praying for the sick? ... or anything else that would demonstrate such D'veikus and in this way those attending would be able to understand and prayer would have more Kavanah. Saying Tehillim doesn't do that. It is more like "crying incoherently". Wouldn't a Shiur in Hilchos Teshuva or Mesilas Yeshorim or Meseches Avos be a better method of showing our Deveikus? Wouldn't it be better to develop our Midos L'Shem Dveikus BaShem, than to say words of Tehilim that are not understood?
The very concept of D'Veikus is rejected Rabbi Y. B. Soloveitchik’s Halakhic Man. As he has said, it is homo religiousus, not Halakhic man who attempts to ascend God. Halakhic Man asks God... to descend to man. Transcendence becomes embodied in man's deeds that are shaped by the lawful physical order of of which man is a part. An individual does not become holy through mysterious adhesion to the absolute nor through mysterious union with the infinite, nor through a boundless, all embracing ecstasy, but, rather through his whole biological life, through animal actions and through actualizing Halacha in the empirical world.
Halachic man cannot achieve D'veikus (cleaving to God) through the recital of Tehilim. The Medrash on Tehillim (1:8) states that David requested that God should account one who recite Tehillim as one who studies Hilchos Metzorah and Ohalim. This clearly implies that David HaMelech believed the study of these laws is of more value than the recital of Tehillim and prayed that they be given value at that level. And there is no indication [in the Medrash] that God granted him his request!
This is so because the primary purpose of study is NOT to study for purposes of D'Veikus, but to comprehend, through the Torah, the Halachos, to understand them in detail so as to be able to perform them properly.
Bottom line: Although I would never try to stop it, I am not a Chasid of the public recital of Tehilim. I question its efficacy, and wonder how this custom developed and why there is not a better, more direct method of supplicating God.
