Sometimes — especially when I see someone has volunteered to read all of perek 119 — I wonder what everyone’s Jewish education is. It would take me a long time to recite that perek, and I marvel at how people just jump at the chance to say the longest one. I’m a bit jealous and wish my Hebrew was good enough that I could always say that one, too.

The Tehillim slots keep filling up — especially during the times when we’re told our soldiers are in danger. Sometimes I have a hard time even filling in the perakim I want to recite because they’re already taken. Once it took me four tries! Instead of being frustrated, I felt like shouting out, “Mi k’amcha Yisrael! Oh, Hashem, just look at Your children rushing to say Tehillim to protect another Jew.”

I’ve been bombarded by friends asking me to join other Tehillim groups, but I also have my own special tefillos I say every day for my relatives who have been called up to serve, and I don’t want to get distracted from that. It hurts me not to join another group, but I know I can’t. What about you? Are you on those other groups?

Since I started writing to you, two rounds of Sefer Tehillim have been said. That’s amazing! I wonder if these people are in my time zone or are just getting up in the middle of the night to recite more Tehillim. Every morning when I check the group, there have been at least 500 participants davening while I slept. That’s why I feel a certain obligation to say Tehillim in the daylight hours… so those people who live in another time zone and are sleeping will know that fervent tefillos are still being said.

I wonder if you’ve always been a “Tehillim person” or if this war has been the impetus to make saying Tehillim a major part of your day. I started saying Tehillim seriously many years ago when someone I knew was critically ill. It kind of took off from there, but I mostly say Tehillim in the morning before Shacharis and very, very seriously when I bentsh licht. Nothing at all like what is going on with me now!

I’ll respect your privacy and not reach out to you. You have no idea who I am, and it would definitely be weird to be approached by someone on a Tehillim group with almost 1,000 participants.

As much personal chizuk as I’m getting from belonging to this group, I can’t tell you how happy I’ll feel when this WhatsApp group is disbanded. That would mean all our soldiers are back home with their families, and the remaining hostages are finally freed.

Please, Hashem, let this happen sooner than later.

Until then, I hope you and your family are as well as can be expected during this tremendous nisayon. And let’s fervently hope that our tefillos are ushering in Mashiach.

Look for my cell phone number in the morning; it’s usually right after yours.

Wishing you all the best,

Your Fellow Tehillim Sayer

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 872)