Those who say Tehillim for payment that they receive: if they were hired to say it on the other days of the week, they are permitted to read on Shabbat as well. However, if they were hired to say it on Shabbat, they should say a few pesukim (verses) before Shabbat or after Shabbat ends, so that their payment will be considered as included (havla’ah) with the weekdays.
Sources and Explanations
Our Sages prohibited receiving payment for being hired for Shabbat, as a decree on account of buying and selling, even when one is engaged in a permitted activity, such as reading Tehillim, unless he was hired for the other days of the week as well, in which case the payment is considered as included with the days of the week (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 306:4).
Halichot Shlomo (Tefillah, chapter 14, Devar Halachah, ot 19) cites that according to Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik (Chiddushei HaShas, Shabbat 19a), the prohibition of payment for Shabbat is not because it is forbidden to profit on Shabbat, but rather because the activity itself becomes forbidden, even though it is a permitted activity, since he is earning from it. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach remarked that according to this, reading Tehillim for payment is not forbidden, for it is impossible to say that this is a transgression, since it is certainly a mitzvah.
Indeed, the Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 306:5) brings two opinions as to whether it is permitted to hire chazzanim to pray on Shabbat; the second opinion holds that in the case of a mitzvah, they did not decree the prohibition of payment for Shabbat. Further on (siman 585) he writes that it is permitted, and so the custom is to be lenient, as the Kaf HaChaim (306:38) noted. So too the Mishnah Berurah (306:5) writes in the name of the Acharonim that the custom is to be lenient to hire for Shabbatot alone, and one who is concerned for the opinion of those who forbid should not fix the amount at the outset, and what he takes afterward can be regarded as a gift.
However, they wrote that even though it is permitted with regard to the prohibition of payment for Shabbat, one does not see a sign of blessing in this payment, and therefore one should arrange the payment so that it is included with the payment for the weekdays.
From the sefer “Shaf Veyativ – Laws of Saying Tehillim” by Rabbi Shay Tahan, Chapter 7: What Is Forbidden and Permitted When Saying Tehillim, Halacha 20 (p. 131 in the print edition). Translated from the Hebrew original.
