Midrash Tehillim

The ancient Midrash on the Book of Psalms

Every Jew says Tehillim — in joy, in fear, at a bedside, at the Kosel. Shocher Tov is what the Sages themselves heard inside those words: the ancient Midrash on the Psalms, mizmor by mizmor. This edition opens it in English for the learner — vocalized Hebrew, a faithful translation, a running elucidation drawing on the classic commentators, and a layer of Chassidic light from the Rebbeim.

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Why it should be brought to light

The Sages’ own Tehillim. The sefer of Dovid HaMelech, read through the eyes of Chazal — and still closed to the English learner.

Midrash Tehillim — called Shocher Tov after its opening verse — is the Aggadic Midrash on the book of Psalms, arranged mizmor by mizmor across the entire sefer. Verse by verse it unfolds what Chazal heard in Dovid HaMelech’s words: narratives of Dovid, the Avos, and Moshe; readings of prayer, teshuvah, exile and redemption; wordplay, gematria, and the proem-openings that braid the whole of Tanach into every psalm.

Tehillim is the most-said sefer of the Jewish people — and its own Midrash remains one of the least learned, because it has never been opened to the English reader in a traditional elucidated edition. The person who says the words every day has never been shown what the Sages found inside them.

This edition adds a layer no printing of Shocher Tov has carried: Chassidic illumination. Over a hundred places where the Rebbeim — from the Alter Rebbe to the Lubavitcher Rebbe — cite this very Midrash have been gathered and set with the text, including framed “Chassidic Spark” passages, such as the midrash on Psalm 1 that the Rebbe repeatedly invoked as the very foundation of mivtza tefillin. The pilot volume, Psalms 1–5, is complete and typeset; the full Midrash will fill a set of volumes — each one waiting for a name.

Whoever says Tehillim is as one occupied with the deepest chambers of Torah — and Shocher Tov is where the Sages opened those chambers.

The promise of this edition

The Rebbe repeatedly invoked this midrash as the very foundation of the campaign to put on tefillin.

From the Chassidic layer on Psalm 1

The edition

Four layers on every page. The Midrash, its translation, the classic commentators, and the light of Chassidus.

Vocalized Hebrew

The Midrash’s bold Hebrew set with full nikud, clause by clause — added editorially for this edition, so the text reads aloud as easily as it learns.

Interlinear translation & elucidation

Each Hebrew clause, its faithful English, and a flowing elucidation that carries the midrash’s argument without interrupting it.

The classic commentators

Rashi, Radak, the Metzudos, Malbim, Alshich and Ibn Ezra on the verses the Midrash expounds — folded into the elucidation where they open the passage.

Chassidic Sparks

Framed insights where the Rebbeim cite this Midrash — over a hundred sources from the Alter Rebbe through the Lubavitcher Rebbe, always attributed.

Summary before every mizmor

A scholarly introduction to each psalm’s midrash — its governing verse, its proem, and the themes it will unfold.

Two indices

A Subject Index and an Index of Sources close the volume, with compact footnotes keeping every page calm.

See it inside

Open the sefer. The opening of Psalm 1, exactly as it will print.

The sample carries the engraved title plate, the title page, and the opening of the first mizmor — “Fortunate is the man” — with the vocalized Hebrew, translation, elucidation, and the first Chassidic layer.

Open the sample PDF