Those who recite in a group, in public, should all be careful to recite without interrupting with idle talk.
Sources and Explanations
So writes the Pele Yo’etz (Erech Tehillim): “There is a custom of some ignorant people, that when they recite them publicly and each one says one mizmor, there are those who have ‘no speech and no words’ except in the mizmor that falls to them to say aloud, and in between, they speak idle words with one another or sit idle. These show that their reading is not for the sake of Heaven, but to display their wisdom, that they know how to read a mizmor of Tehillim; for if their reading were for the sake of a mitzvah, what difference would it make whether in a whisper or aloud?”
He further remarked on the same matter, in words that hew out flames of fire (Erech Zemirot): “How praiseworthy is the recitation of the zemirot (Pesukei DeZimra) every day! Their secret is lofty and their head reaches the heavens, to cut down the tyrants and to eradicate all the external kelipot (forces of impurity). One who comes late to the synagogue such that he needs to skip parts of the zemirot loses much good; and all the more so those who disdainfully study other studies, Tehillim and Ma’amadot and the like, or sit in the gatherings of the synagogues of the ignorant in the courtyard of the synagogue, engaging in much conversation and skipping the zemirot. Woe to them for the insult to the zemirot! They are like one who exchanges pearls for pennies or for earthen shards. So it is with this matter, for even to study is not good, and ‘a word in its proper time, how good it is.’ … And if it is difficult in your eyes to change this custom, wait for me until I appease you with words: If you were standing before a king of flesh and blood, standing and serving and recounting his praise, would you stop in the middle for the honor of some person? Certainly not, for great is the honor of the king, and it is not fitting to leave off in the middle of his praise and service for the honor of any person. If for the honor of a king of flesh and blood it is so, for the honor of Hamakom (the Omnipresent) all the more so.”
This is not contradicted by what the Be’ur Halachah (siman 422, se’if 4, s.v. aval) permitted, namely to interrupt in the middle of reciting Tehillim, as he writes: “And it is not comparable to one who reads in the book of Tehillim, who may interrupt for anything,” for there he is speaking of one who interrupts for a need, and not of one who speaks idle words and exchanges the eternal world for a passing world.
From the sefer “Shaf Veyativ – Laws of Saying Tehillim” by Rabbi Shay Tahan, Chapter 5: How to Say Tehillim and Precise Pronunciation, Halacha 20 (p. 79 in the print edition). Translated from the Hebrew original.
