THE GREATNESS OF PSALMS

Reciting Psalms has the power to arouse even the unmotivated to repent. The Psalms can also direct our prayers to the exact gate we need!

Rebbe Nachman teaches: It is a very wonderful thing to recite the Psalms, often (Likutey Moharan II, 73).

Whoever wants to repent completely should recite the Psalms (Likutey Moharan II, 73).

There are times when we do not feel like repenting. For whatever reason, we aren’t motivated to return to God. Then again, there are times we try to repent, but cannot find the right gate. There are twelve gates in Heaven corresponding to the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and each Jew has to direct his prayer to the gate of his tribe, no other tribe will do. Sometimes we begin to repent and successfully find the gate we need; only to discover that, when we get there, the gate is closed. Reciting Psalms has the power to arouse even the unmotivated to repent. The Psalms can also direct our prayers to the exact gate we need or even open the appropriate gate (Likutey Moharan II, 73).

There are twelve gates in Heaven corresponding to the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and each Jew has to direct his prayer to the gate of his tribe!

Therefore, during times of repentance – Elul, the Ten Days of Repentance, etc. – we find all of Israel reciting the Psalms (Likutey Moharan II, 73).

There are many protest demonstrations in Jerusalem, for any number of reasons, When he was alive, my Rosh Yeshivah would attend only those demonstrations at which the Psalms were recited. He would say, “The power of reciting Psalms is very great; all the more so, when recited in a large gathering. What difference does the reason make?!”

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Reb Isaac Sofer, a resident of Breslov, would recite the entire Book of Psalms twice during the night of Yom Kippur. [There are one hundred and fifty psalms. Twice that is three hundred, equivalent to the Hebrew word to forgive, כפר. It is therefore customary to recite the Psalms twice on Yom Kippur.] Once, Reb Noson passed by the town synagogue early Yom Kippur morning and heard Reb Isaac reciting the Psalms with “a fire” (great yearning and desire). After his followers told him that this was the second time Reb Isaac was completing the entire Book, and with the very same fervor and enthusiasm as when he began, Reb Noson said, “This one belongs with us.” Shortly afterwards, Reb Isaac became a Breslover chassid (Sichot v’Sippurim p. 144 #57).

(Taken from the book Crossing the Narrow Bridge: A Practical Guide to Rebbe Nachman’s Teachings, chapter 8: Prayer)