Children who say Tehillim have a very great merit, for theirs is breath of the mouth in which there is no sin. Therefore it is proper to accustom a child to saying Tehillim, and also because of “Train a youth according to his way; even when he grows old he will not depart from it” (Mishlei 22:6).
Sources and Explanations
Well known are the words of the Gemara (Shabbat 119b) that the world endures only for the sake of the breath of tinokot shel beit rabban (schoolchildren learning Torah), for breath in which there is sin is not comparable to breath in which there is no sin. This is also the ruling of the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De’ah 245:7). Therefore the Gemara said (ibid., and in the Shulchan Aruch ibid. 245:13) that tinokot shel beit rabban may not be interrupted from their learning even for the building of the Beit HaMikdash. This is also the ruling of the sefer Mateh Efraim (603:6).
From the sefer “Shaf Veyativ – Laws of Saying Tehillim” by Rabbi Shay Tahan, Chapter 4: Laws Concerning Those Who Say Tehillim, Halacha 1 (p. 47 in the print edition). Translated from the Hebrew original.
