[Avodah] Saying Tehillim for a sick person

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 12:06:37PM +0000, Dov Kaiser wrote:
: No-one claimed that refa'einu or refah na lah is assur. The question
: is whether pesukim may be recited...

According to Reish Laqish, the pasuq existed since matan Torah. And yet
he had no problem with MRAH saying what HQBH already said he would say.
Admittedly, that might be a special case.

> Techumin some years ago. IIRC, the author cited R.SZA to the effect that
> when reciting Tehillim for an ill person, one should davka have in mind
> that the recovery should come about through the z'chus of the learning
> involved in the recital. Far be it for me to argue with R.SZA's halachic
> reasoning, but his maskana seems counter-intuitive to me - I would have
> thought that to recite pesukim that speak to the anguished heart of the
> petitioner and express his longing for the choleh's recovery would be
> alright; reciting them to create a z'chus of talmud torah seems more
> theurgic and problematic to me.

I see the line defining theurgy as being beyond one's attempt to get
sekhar. It's more about the manipulation of forces, trying to turn G-d --
or even more problematic, some mal'akh -- into a nisa rather than a Nosei.

But while doing mitzvos for the sake of sekhar is inferior, it's still
based on trying to align your ratzon with His Ratzon by making your
outcome more compatible with the terms of the beris. Not about invoking
supernatural forces to produce an effect. (Kishuf, as per the title of
the se'if in the SA that discusses lechishah.)

I don't have a source for the above, it just fits the data LAD.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             With the "Echad" of the Shema, the Jew crowns
micha at aishdas.org        G-d as King of the entire cosmos and all four
http://www.aishdas.org   corners of the world, but sometimes he forgets
Fax: (270) 514-1507      to include himself.     - Rav Yisrael Salanter