Tehillim 115 or 5 Minutes of Tehillim a Day

Tehillim 115 or 5 Minutes of Tehillim a Day

Tehillim 115:17-18 “Lo hameitim yehallel'u Yah, velo kol yordei dumah. Va'anahnu nevarekh Yah...” -             (It is not the dead who praise the L-rd, nor those who descend into the grave; rather, we—the living—will praise G-d). One day, the great Torah sage Rav Yehoshua Leib Diskin related how a simple woman had bested him. This happened when he visited a hospital. There he saw a sick Jewish woman who was covered from head to toe with filth because of her stomach illness. In those days, sanitary conditions in hospitals were appalling, and people were treated in a wholly unacceptable manner—she was not washed, nor were her clothes changed for many days. “Rebbe, bless me with a long life,” the woman said to Rav Diskin. “You are asking for many years of life,” Rav Diskin wondered, “Why would you want a long life in your situation?” And the woman explained: “Once a week, they wash me and dress me in clean clothes, and then I have five minutes to say Tehillim before I become soiled again. In order to praise the L-rd, even for just five minutes, I am willing to wait a long time. I want to live many years so that I will have many opportunities to merit those five minutes of reciting Tehillim.” Rav Diskin had no answer to this Jewish woman. (Rav Reuven Kuklin)