The Chida writes that it is a segulah (spiritual remedy) for every trouble to recite pesukim (verses) according to the letters of a person’s name. Although there are those who challenge this, the custom has already become established to recite in this manner, based on our early Rabbis.
Sources and Explanations
In the book Teshuvot VeHanhagot (vol. 1, siman 121), he was asked whether it is permitted to say Tehillim or pesukim from chapter 119 according to the name of the sick person.
He replied as follows: “In the Rambam (Hilchot Avodah Zarah 11:12) it is written: ‘But a healthy person who recited pesukim and a mizmor of Tehillim so that the merit of their recitation should protect him and he be saved from troubles and harm, this is permitted.’ It is clear from his words there that if one intends with the mizmorim of Tehillim to be healed or to ease suffering, it is forbidden, and it is like one who heals himself with words of Torah, and the Rambam calls one who heals himself in this way a ‘denier of the Torah,’ Heaven forbid. This is puzzling: is it really forbidden according to the Rambam to say Tehillim for a sick person who is not in danger, as is the custom of Israel? For with one who is in danger it is permitted because of pikuach nefesh (saving a life), as stated in Yoreh De’ah (179:8). I am surprised that the commentators did not sufficiently explain this law.
Perhaps those who say this for a sick person (since for a healthy person, where it is for protection, it is permitted) relied on the opinion of the Chinuch (mitzvah 512), that by virtue of the words of Torah, which arouse him to establish in his heart the fear of Hashem, to take refuge in Him and to rely on His goodness, it is permitted, and only when he intends that the words of Torah themselves serve as healing is it forbidden. And so too wrote the Torat Chaim (Shevuot), that only when he intends that the words of Torah bring healing by way of segulah is it forbidden, but by virtue of the words of Torah it is permitted. However, according to the Rambam it seems that even by virtue of the words of Torah it is forbidden for a sick person, since it is considered healing oneself, and is forbidden, as we wrote.
Based on this, it seems proper to be stringent and to omit what is customarily said before Tehillim (within the yehi ratzon), ‘in the merit of the pesukim of Tehillim, their words and their letters,’ for this implies the merit of the Tehillim itself, which according to the Rambam is like healing oneself with words of Torah. Rather, one should say, ‘and may the merit of our supplications in reciting the pesukim of Tehillim, their words, their letters, and their vowels stand for us,’ which explicitly states the opposite, that he is not requesting mercy in the merit of the recitation but rather for supplications, which is permitted, as we wrote.
As for what is said for a sick person, pesukim from chapter 119 according to the sick person’s name, according to what we have explained this is specifically for a sick person in danger, and it seems that this is indeed the custom, that only for a sick person in danger do they say pesukim from chapter (kapitel) 119 according to the names of the sick person, and this is permitted, as is written in the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De’ah 179:2), see there. Within the mizmorim of Tehillim King David concealed many secrets, and it is by his intention and kavanah that we supplicate that our supplications be accepted with favor before the Master of all, and not in the merit of the recitation, for one does not heal with words of Torah, even with the book of Tehillim, as we have explained.” End quote.
In vol. 2 (end of siman 67), he cited that the Responsa Tzafnat Pa’neach (siman 66) also wrote to forbid this, because any passage that Moshe did not divide, we do not divide (see what we wrote in a responsum on this), and furthermore, it is forbidden to make the Name of Heaven like a sign and a notarikon (acronym). And likewise the Kuntres Devek Tov (siman 4, s.v. be’inyan) remarked on this, that one should not select and say special mizmorim according to the names of the sick person, and likewise one should not say the pesukim of ‘Tamnia Apei’ (the eightfold alphabetical Psalm 119) according to the letters of the sick person’s name, for this is considered a form of segulah, which is forbidden.
However, these words are contradicted by what is known as ‘Tehillim HaChida’ (also called Likkutei Tehillim), which is a book of Tehillim that includes all the pesukim of Tehillim, but is arranged not like a regular book of Tehillim, that is, mizmor 1 ‘Ashrei ha’ish’ and mizmor 2 ‘Lamah ragshu goyim,’ but rather according to pesukim beginning with the letters of the alef-bet; that is, every pasuk that begins with alef is written first, and afterward every pasuk that begins with bet. The Chida explained (at the beginning of the book Likkutei Tehillim) that reading in this manner “is an exceedingly wondrous segulah to be saved from every trouble and distress. Whoever says each day the letters of his name, it will benefit him for success and protection, and he will be saved from all pain and harm on that day, especially travelers on the road and those crossing seas and rivers.” He repeated this segulah in several places; for example, see what he wrote in his book Sansan LeYair (chapter 11, ot 2): “Things that are beneficial for healing: they should learn the pesukim of Tehillim from the letters of his name from the book Likkutei Tehillim.”
It is accepted that the words of the Chida are based on the words of his grandfather, Rabbi Avraham Azulai, in his book Chesed LeAvraham, who wrote: “Every letter has spirituality and an honored light emanated from the essence of the sefirot, and from the breath of a person’s mouth supernal forms come into being, bound to their root in the essence of Atzilut, etc. For indeed, by pronouncing the words properly, one arouses spirituality and moves the forces of the letters that combine, and their movement and their striking against one another, and through this new lights come into being, in the manner of compounding spices, and they are truly new, according to that time and that moment, and the combination of the unique Name that revolves at that moment.”
Although the aforementioned words of the Chida in his introduction do not contradict the words of the Gemara, which permitted reading in order to be saved from danger or future harm, since he did not write that it is for the purpose of healing, nevertheless from other places it is evident that he said to do so even for the sick or for any trouble, that it should not come.
There would seemingly have been room to reconcile the matter, that what the Chida wrote is for a sick person in danger, for whom reading in such a manner was permitted, and not for a sick person who is not in danger. However, the Chida himself has already revealed to us his halachic opinion that it is permitted to say pesukim for any sick person, as he cited in his book Petach Einayim (Shevuot 15b) the words of the Ritva, Rabbi Yeshayah the Elder, and the Riaz, who permitted doing so, and they wrote that Chazal only forbade saying pesukim over a wound, but for the healing of a sick person it is permitted; and he wrote there to disagree with the understanding of Maran the Beit Yosef (Yoreh De’ah 179), who did not distinguish between one who has a wound and a sick person who has no wound.
Indeed, reading Tehillim in the above manner was mentioned by many of the poskim, among them in the introduction to the book HaKatuv LaChaim, and likewise in the book Yimatzei Chaim by Rabbi Chaim Palagi (siman 25, note 4), and likewise the Chida wrote in his book Sansan LeYair: “He should say, according to the order of the letters of the city, letters from the alef-bet.”
Similarly, the Chida wrote in Avodat HaKodesh (ot 3 at the beginning of his book) that if trouble comes upon a city, one should read Tehillim in alef-bet order according to the letters of the name of the city. And likewise it is brought in Sefer HaZechirah (p. 237): “A segulah from a certain mekubal: each one should say those pesukim in Tehillim that begin with the letters of the name of the city. For example, if the city is called ‘Prague,’ they should say every pasuk beginning with the letter pei, and afterward with the letter reish, and with gimmel; and he should say this in the beit knesset, and should first specify for which trouble he is saying it.”
And likewise Rabbi Chaim Palagi wrote in the introduction to his book HaKatuv LaChaim: “Regarding what is customary, to learn the initial letters of one’s name or of the name of the city from the alef-bet of ‘Ashrei temimei derech,’ behold, in the Kitzur Shelah and MD”T (folio 64d) they wrote that one needs the entire alef-bet of all of Tehillim, for so they received from a great mekubal, that reading in this manner is a segulah for all troubles, that they should not come, see there. According to this, one should seek out the book Likkutei Tehillim, which they arranged in alef-bet order, see there.”
Furthermore, we have seen that our Rabbis wrote to read in alef-bet order for any trouble, that it should not come; for example, in Sefer HaZechirah (Inyan Olam HaZeh, p. 237), which wrote a segulah from a certain mekubal, that if there is trouble in the city, Heaven forbid, each one should say pesukim from Tehillim that begin with the letters of the name of the city. And for example, what Rabbi Chaim Palagi wrote in the introduction to his book HaKatuv LaChaim, that they received from a great mekubal that reading in this manner is a segulah for all troubles.
Chazon Ovadia (Avelut vol. 1, p. 26) already remarked: “The Chida at the beginning of his book (Yosef Tehillot on Tehillim, ot 16) wrote that it is good to gather ten men for the sick person and to say all the pesukim of Tehillim in Tamnia Apei that begin with each of the letters of his name (and some have the custom to add the letters ‘kera Satan’ (tear up the Satan)), and it has already been printed in the book Likkutei Tehillim in alef-bet order. Similarly, Rabbi Chaim Palagi wrote at the beginning of his book HaKatuv LaChaim (s.v. umah shenahagu). This is unlike what is written in Kuntres Devek Tov (at the end of Mishneh Sachir vol. 1), that one should say the mizmorim of Tehillim in their order, and not as some are accustomed to say the letters of the sick person’s name with the letters of the pesukim of Tamnia Apei (in mizmor 119), as this resembles a form of segulah, which is certainly forbidden. And so wrote Responsa Betzel HaChochmah (vol. 4, siman 47). But the custom is to permit, in accordance with the words of Maran the Chida and those who concur with him. Similarly, the Gaon Rabbi Yosef Chaim wrote in the book Ben Ish Chai (Vayechi, ot 12) that it is good for the orphan, before he says the mourner’s kaddish, which is before Aleinu LeShabeach, to say pesukim from the alef-bet that begin with the letters of the name of his father or mother, and afterward to say the kaddish for the elevation of their souls, and there is no loss in this.”
Therefore, it seems, on the basis of the aforementioned opinion of the Chida, that it is permitted to read Tehillim in this manner for a sick person, and this is not considered healing oneself with words of Torah. The custom has already spread this way, and therefore one should not be stringent in this matter in practice.
From the sefer “Shaf Veyativ – Laws of Saying Tehillim” by Rabbi Shay Tahan, Chapter 1: The Virtues and Merits of Saying Tehillim, Halacha 5 (p. 9 in the print edition). Translated from the Hebrew original.
