JEWISH RITUAL — 4 (Tefillin)

PUTTING ON TEFILLIN

(PRAYER BOXES)

Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead.

—DEUTERONOMY 6:8

THE BASICS OF USING TEFILLIN

Phylacteries. Black leather boxes. Laying tefillin. Wrapping the straps. These are words and phrases that refer to the admittedly peculiar Jewish practice of literally binding ourselves with the word of God by wrapping a black leather strap – attached to a specially made matching leather prayer box – around the arm and hand. A separate strap with a slightly larger box is wrapped around the forehead – straps left dangling on the side, draped around the neck, hanging down in front. This is what is referred to by the general term tefillin (Israeli Hebrew: [tfiˈlin], תפילין), a plural Hebrew word that emerges from the root word for prayer, tefillah. In these boxes are contained essential Jewish prayer texts, taken from the Torah, teachings that bind us to God. Putting on tefillin is a ritual act that reflects faithfulness and is based in biblical instruction. In addressing the ancient Israelites, this is the way that the Bible frames it:

Pay attention, Israel! Adonai is our God, Adonai alone. You should love Adonai your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your substance. Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. Impress them on your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead, inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

—DEUTERONOMY 6:4-9

The preceding text from Deuteronomy, one of the four texts written on parchment and actually encased in the tefillin, is from the creedal prayer called the Shema, which contains within it the commandment to wear tefillin. The Rabbis of the Talmud maintain that if you say the Shema without wearing tefillin, you are a liar. Since the Shema prayer includes the commandment for tefillin and the essence of wearing tefillin and saying the Shema is the same – to recognize God's power – if you did one without the other, you would be inconsistent, and thus a liar.

FOLLOWING GOD'S INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR LIFE

Another of the four texts contained in the tefillin is the second paragraph of the Shema prayer. These verses do not use the word tefillin; rather, they literally say to wear "symbols" between the eyes. Jewish tradition has always taken the Hebrew word for "symbols", totafot, as referring to tefillin. But Jewish practice is to wear the tefillin on the forehead and not exactly between the eyes, as the Bible suggests. The Rabbis of the Talmud explore this point in depth and conclude that between the eyes is too small an area; therefore, the Scriptures must mean the place where you can make a bald spot, that is, the forehead:

If you obey the instructions that I give you today, loving Adonai your God and serving God with all your heart and soul, I will grant the rain for your land in season, the early rain and the late. You will gather in your new grain, wine, and oil—I will also provide grass in the fields for your cattle. Thus, you will eat your fill. Take care not to be lured away to serve other gods and bow to them. For God's anger will flare up against you, and God will shut up the skies so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its produce; and you will soon perish from the good land that God is assigning to you. Therefore impress my words on your very heart; bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead, and teach them to your children – reciting them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up; and inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates – to the end that you and your children may endure, in the land that Adonai promised to your ancestors to assign to them, as long as there is a heaven over the earth.

—DEUTERONOMY 11:13-21

The practice of putting on tefillin is a concrete response to the instructions from the Bible to "bind them as a sign upon your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead." Wearing tefillin is a reminder of our responsibilities to God in appreciation for setting us free from Egyptian slavery, Tefillin are wrapped around the arm to remind us of God's "outstretched arm" and God's "mighty hand" – phrases in the Bible that describe God saving Israel from the Egyptians. By recalling God's power in saving ancient Israel from Egypt, we daily remind ourselves of God's power to save us from spiritual and physical enslavement.

By literally binding God's word to the arms, we give unique physical expression to the abstract notion of inviting the Divine into our life for inspiration and guidance. Laying tefillin (a Yiddish expression for putting them on) is the way practicing Jews begin each day; it is part of the morning prayers and serves as a foundation for the hours that follow.

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