Likutay Moharan - Volume 2 - Torah-teaching 73

Likutay Moharan II Torah 73: Whoever Desires to Merit Teshuvah Should Be Accustomed to Reciting Tehillim

Whoever desires to merit teshuvah [repentance] should be accustomed to reciting Tehillim [Psalms], for reciting Tehillim is a segula [propitious means] for teshuvah. For there are fifty gates of teshuvah, and forty-nine gates every person can enter and attain. But the fiftieth gate is the aspect of the teshuvah of Hashem [the Name, G-d] Himself, as it were, for we find even with Him, blessed be He, an aspect of teshuvah, as it is written: “Return to Me, and I will return to you” (Malachi 3:7). These forty-nine gates of teshuvah are the aspect of the forty-nine letters that are in the names of the twelve tribes of Yah. For each gate has a letter from the forty-nine letters of the tribes. Behold, all desire to fear Your Name, yet not every person merits to perform teshuvah. For there is one who has no arousal at all for teshuvah. Even one who has arousal for teshuvah does not merit to reach the letter and gate of teshuvah that pertains to him. Even if he reaches there, it is possible that the gate of teshuvah is closed. Due to all this, a person does not merit teshuvah. Through reciting Tehillim, even one who has no arousal at all for teshuvah is aroused to perform teshuvah. Also, through Tehillim, he merits to reach the gate and letter that pertains to him and to open the gate. Thus, he merits through Tehillim to perform teshuvah. This is the aspect of: “The utterance of the man raised on high, pleasant songs of Israel” (2 Samuel 23:1). Our Sages, of blessed memory, expounded (Moed Katan 16b): He established the yoke of teshuvah. Through the aspect of pleasant songs of Israel, meaning the book of Tehillim that he established, the yoke of teshuvah was raised, for through Tehillim, one merits teshuvah, as mentioned above. This is what our Sages, of blessed memory, said (Avodah Zarah 4b): David was not worthy of that deed, except to teach teshuvah to the individual, and so forth. Thus, the essence of the teaching of teshuvah is through David HaMelech [King David]. The essence of the teshuvah of David HaMelech is the book of Tehillim, which he said with great arousal and with the holy spirit, such that each and every person, according to his level, can find himself within the book of Tehillim and merit teshuvah through reciting Tehillim, as mentioned above.

The essence of the purification of the twelve tribes of Yah, which are the forty-nine letters, the aspects of the forty-nine gates of teshuvah, was in Mitzrayim [Egypt], which is the aspect of meitzar hagaron [straits of the throat], the aspect of supreme teshuvah (as brought in the writings of the Ari, of blessed memory, see there and understand well). Therefore, after they were purified there in Mitzrayim and merited to leave from there, they counted the forty-nine days of the Sefirah [Counting of the Omer], which correspond to the forty-nine gates of teshuvah, the aspect of the aforementioned forty-nine letters. On the fiftieth day, then: “Hashem descended upon Mount Sinai” (Exodus 19:20), this is the aspect of “I will return to you,” the aspect of the teshuvah of Hashem Himself, as it were, the aspect of the fiftieth gate, as mentioned above. This is: “These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Mitzrayim with Yaakov, each man and his household” (Exodus 1:1). The final letters are the letters of תְּהִלִּים [Tehillim] and the letters of תְּשׁוּבָה [teshuvah]. For through Tehillim, one merits teshuvah, which is the aspect of the names of the sons of Israel who came to Mitzrayim, and so forth. For the forty-nine gates of teshuvah are the aspect of the forty-nine letters in the names of the sons of Israel who came to Mitzrayim to be purified there, as mentioned above. This is what we see, that in the days of teshuvah, meaning in Elul and the Ten Days of Teshuvah, all Israel engages then in reciting Tehillim. For reciting Tehillim is a segula for teshuvah, as mentioned above. Therefore, it is a very great matter to constantly engage in reciting Tehillim, for Tehillim is a very, very great arousal to Hashem, blessed be He. Fortunate is he who holds fast to it.