The definitive edition of Reb Zalman’s heart-felt translations for praying in English, developed and refined over decades. Newly edited, punctuated, and formatted for ease of use, the book is a beautiful devotional companion.
Psycho-spiritually accurate for our age, this translation is gender-balanced (neither God nor God’s people are exclusively masculine or feminine) and understands that, in Reb Zalman’s words, “often [our] ‘enemies’ are not on the outside.” Although oriented to use in Jewish liturgy, care has been taken to ensure that Christians, Sufis and others can use this volume in prayer with ease.
- Softcover Book - Use the discount code LFSRVD8R, and you'll get a 10% discount, the same price as directly through amazon.com.
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Free Study Guide
A free Study Guide, including a number of spiritual exercises with Psalms, is now available for download here (PDF).
"There are many available translations of the Book of Psalms that are both accurate and beautiful, but Reb Zalman offers us the gift of a translation for the soul and the heart. In this translation, the pathos of the psalmist—his fear, his yearning, his amazement, his hope, his song—touches us directly and he is us and his prayer becomes our prayer."
Rabbi José Rolando Matalon
Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, NY
"As Benedictine monks, my Brothers and I chant psalms many times each day. After close to 60 years of monastic life I have respectfully begun to wonder to what extent the Psalms can still nourish contemporary spirituality. My dear and revered friend Zalman’s Psalms in a Translation for Praying gives me hope.”
Brother David Steindl-Rast
Author, Common Sense Spirituality
“Reb Zalman’s renditions of the Psalms are a call to wake up. These translations feel urgent; they need to be spoken, sung or shouted. They need to be heard.”
Anita Diamant
Author, The Red Tent and Living a Jewish Life
“I am delighted with Reb Zalman’s down-to-earth language, gender-balance, and heart-felt idioms that make the ancient songs sing again with a fresh vibrancy and meaning. Through them our ancestors chant from the depths of their souls to our own about joy and darkness, praise and sorrow, awe and social justice. The spiritual journey we share comes alive in these prayers!”
Rev. Matthew Fox
Author, A Spirituality Named Compassion
“These psalms are saturated with divine Presence, yet their feet are firmly planted on the ground. At times, their voice has the steadying timbre of an experienced and trustworthy spiritual master. Other times, they are the exclamations of a joyous child. The more you read them, the more their voices become your own. This is a prayer book for the cosmos. It brings alive the divinity dwelling all around us.”
Joel Rosenberg, PhD
Tufts University