Kehot Tehillim App Free of Charge to Inspire Prayers for Israel
by Yaakov Ort – chabad.org
For thousands of years, through times of joy and sorrow, and particularly in times of danger, the Jewish people have turned for inspiration, courage and comfort to the emotionally charged words of King David in Tehillim (“Psalms”).
So from the moment that word of a massacre of Jews by Hamas terrorists began to spread on Shabbat morning, Oct. 7, countless people in synagogues and homes around the world immediately began to say Tehillim for the protection and safety of Israel. In the days that followed—with continuing rocket attacks battering the nation daily and hundreds of thousands of young soldiers preparing to enter the Gaza Strip—the number of people saying Tehillim has grown dramatically. It is likely that the number of people saying Tehillim today is greater than ever before in the history of the Jewish people.
To help spread the saying of Psalms even further around the world, the Kehot Publication Society’s Tehillim app is being offered free of charge for the next eight days. The app, which had been available for $4.99, has been upgraded by developers at Chabad.org to highlight the chapters that are recommended to be said for the safety of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.
At its core, the app presents a crisp digital version of the Kehot Publication Society’s beloved Tehillim Ohel Yosef Yitzchak with English translation. It provides the daily portion of Tehillim for those who follow the monthly cycle (as per the common custom), as well as for those who wish to complete the entire Tehillim on a weekly basis.
“I recently started saying Tehillim in Hebrew from a siddur, and I find it challenging,” Lily Chapnik Rosenthal, a lawyer in Toronto told Chabad.org. “But saying the same words said by generations upon generations of Jews for connection and protection is so powerful. It’s worth the discomfort.”
She said she is excited about what the app will offer her. “Giving me a translation, more context and more guidance as to what Tehillim to say and when will make the experience much more accessible to people like me.”
Some have started saying Tehillim again after many years. “I’ve been saying Tehillim since the first terrorist attack,” said Chana, a nurse from Ma’ale Adumim, Israel. “It’s odd that it took me so long to get back to Tehillim, but I nearly always find it makes me feel closer to Hashem, and I always find myself wondering why I stayed away from it so long.”
Others have added to their regular daily schedule. “I’ve been saying Tehillim daily for more than ten years,” said David Avraham Kletz, a business consultant from Jerusalem, who said he has occasionally added chapters to provide special benefits. “In the past two weeks I’ve added the chapters said in times of distress,” he said.
Featured Chapters Have a Storied History
The specific psalms included in the upgrade have a long and storied history.
In the fall of 1940, American Jews watched from across the ocean with horror as the Nazis began the methodical plan to eradicate Europe’s Jews. The Sixth Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Shneersohn, of righteous memory, who had recently escaped Nazi-occupied Poland, issued a small booklet of prayers to say on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in synagogues all over. It included three chapters of Psalms: 20, 22 and 69.
More than 50 years later, in the spring of 1990, the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, issued a call to Jews everywhere to increase in Torah study, prayer and tzedakah (“charity”).
In addition to the three psalms selected by his predecessor, he requested that the final chapter of Psalms, Psalm 150 be added, noting that it concluded with the words, “All souls shall praise G‑d, Hallelujah.”
During the current war, many have added Psalm 122, which speaks specifically of the “welfare of Jerusalem” and repeatedly mentions the deep desire for peace. It is especially appropriate this year, 121 years since the Rebbe’s birth, when many say this specific psalm in his honor.
If you only knew the power of reciting Tehillim and their effect in the highest Heavens,” said the third Rebbe of Chabad, “you would recite them constantly.”
The original app was sponsored by the Ainsworth family in memory of their parents. The subsidy to make the app free for the 8 days was their initiative, and is sponsored by them “in the merit of the safety of our brothers and sisters in Israel, and in loving memory and honor of Tzvi & Itty Ainsworth ע”ה.”
Click here to access the Kehot Publication Society Tehillim App for Android or iOS.
