Tehillim 6 – How to Ward Off the Prosecuting Angels and Erase Sins

Tehillim 6 – How to Ward Off the Prosecuting Angels and Erase Sins

Tehillim 6:9 - “Suru mimeni kol po'alei aven, ki shama A-donai kol bikh'i” - (Away from me, all you who do evil, for my G-d has heard the sound of my weeping.) The Sages, of blessed memory, teach that since tears are especially precious, one should weep at the proper moments—and the primary time for this is during prayer. Tears and sobbing during prayer drive away the angels who testify against a person, as it is said in Tehillim (6:9): “Away from me, all you who do evil, for my G-d has heard the sound of my weeping.” - “All you who do evil” - refers to the prosecuting and destructive angels. Rabbi Eliezer Papo (zechuto yagein aleinu) further teaches that while crying, one should wipe a tear from the eyes with the right hand and pass it across the forehead, as though erasing one's sins during prayer filled with repentance. Where do we learn this from? The holy Zohar cites a verse from Shemot (2:6) about Batya, Pharaoh's daughter: “She opened it and saw him—the child, and behold, a boy was crying, and she took pity on him” and reveals the secret: - “A boy was crying” – this means that Hashem saw the people of Israel. And immediately after seeing that the people of Israel were crying—“she took pity on him.” As Chazal teach: “All the gates of Heaven are closed, except for the Gates of Tears.” (From the book “Pele Yoetz” by Rabbi Eliezer Papo)