With Motty Steinmetz’s debut album Haneshama Bekirbi flying off the shelves among the heartwarming songs his fans are enjoying is a long Yiddish ballad entitled “Brivele” which brings home the power of reciting Tehillim. The composer badchan Motti Ilowitz explains his parable: “A king has a beloved servant a writer who writes him eloquent letters of loyalty and longing. When the writer dies the courtiers comfort and revive the king’s spirit by reading the beautiful letters. They know that with those letters in hand they can always approach and win the king’s favor by drawing on the memory of this most favored subject. To say a kapitel of Tehillim is to approach the Ribbono shel Olam with the letters of his beloved servant Dovid Hamelech.”

Ilowitz says that when he heard this concept it changed his attitude toward Tehillim forever and inspired him to write and compose “Brivele.” And he’s humbled that he’s been able to pass on that profound and comforting idea. “A man of 90 told me that he looks at his regular recitation of Tehillim differently now. If only we would realize what a treasure we hold in our hands.”