Tefillin are not amulets. They are "attachments" to the body and
serve to distinguish Jews as people who keep God's precepts constantly in mind.
By Rabbi Louis Jacobs
Rabbi Jacobs'
exposition of the details of the structure and use of tefillin in this article is supplemented by his
article on their significance and interpretation. It should be noted that his
claim that the terms tefillin and tefillah are not directly related is a minority
opinion, and that his observations about the paucity of women observing this mitzvah has become less accurate in more recent
years . Reprinted with permission from Louis Jacobs, The Jewish Religion:
A Companion, published by
Oxford University Press.
What They Are
Tefillin are the cube-shaped black leather boxes, containing
four scriptural passages, attached to the head and arm and worn during the
morning prayers. It is purely coincidental that the word tefillin so closely
resembles the word for prayer, tefillah,
since, although eventually the tefillin were only worn for the morning prayer,
in Talmudic times they were worn all day and had no special association with
prayer.
As Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Tefillin, 4.25-6) puts
it: "Great is the sanctity of tefillin, for as long as the tefillin are
upon man's head and arm, he is humble and God-fearing and is not drawn after
frivolity and idle talk, and does not have evil thoughts, but directs his heart
to words of truth and righteousness. Therefore a man should try to have them on
him all day ... Even though they should be worn all day it is the greater
obligation to wear them during prayer." In point of fact, some few
extremely pious individuals, even in post-Talmudic times, did wear tefillin all
day and this seems to have been Maimonides' own practice. But the vast majority
of Jews only wear tefillin during the morning prayer.
Etymology and History
The etymology of [the term] tefillin is uncertain, but
possibly is connected either with a Hebrew root meaning "to attach"
or with a root meaning "to distinguish." If this is correct, tefillin
mean either "attachments" to the body or else the means whereby the
Jew is distinguished from Gentiles. "Tefillin" is usually translated
in English as "phylacteries." This is based on the New Testament
Greek: "But all their works they do to be seen of men; they make broad
their phylacteries" (Matthew 23:5). This passage, hostile to the
Pharisees, uses the Greek word, from which the English is derived, meaning
"things which guard"; in other words, the tefillin are a kind of
amulet to offer protection against the demonic powers; whereas in all the
Jewish sources the tefillin serve, like the tzitzit,
as a reminder of God's laws.
In four Pentateuchal passages it is stated that certain
words should be on the hand and between the eyes. Many commentators, including
Rashbam [Samuel ben Meir, 11th century Bible and Talmud commentator from
France], hold that the plain meaning of these passages is that the words of the
Torah should be constantly in mind, as in the verses: "Set them as a seal
upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm" (Song of Songs 8: 6) and
"Let not kindness and truth forsake thee; bind them about thy neck, write
them on the table of thy heart" (Proverbs 3: 3).
The Karaites [a sect of Judaism that rejects the authority
of rabbinic interpretation and law] understood the passages in this figurative
way and did not wear tefillin. But very early on, as can be seen from the
reference in the New Testament, Jews understood the passages in a literal sense
and wore these four sections on the head and the arm, the words being those in
the sections themselves. These are the tefillin, although, undoubtedly, they
have developed over the years to assume the form they now have. The following
is a brief description of what tefillin are now and how they are worn.
The Objects and Contents
The tefillin consist of two cube-shaped leather boxes, one
worn on the head, the other on the arm, with leather straps fixed to them for
attaching them to the head and the arm. Into these boxes, known as batim, "houses," the four
passages, written by hand, are inserted.
The hand tefillin (in the Rabbinic tradition the
"hand" here means the arm) contains all four sections written on a
single strip of parchment. In the head tefillin there are four separate
compartments, one for each of the four. The four sections are: (a) Exodus
13:1-10; (b) Exodus 13:11-16; (c) Deuteronomy 6:4-9; (d) Deuteronomy 11:12-21.
Although the box (bayit,
"house," singular of batim) of the head tefillin has to be in the
form of an exact square (in the part into which the sections are inserted; this
part rests on a larger base), it is divided into four compartments for the
insertion of the sections, care being taken that these should not be separated
from one another in such a way as to interfere with the square shape. The box
of the hand tefillin consists of a single compartment into which all four
sections, written on a single strip, are inserted. The boxes have to be
completely black as well as square-shaped.
Black straps are inserted into each of the batim. The straps
of the head tefillin are made to form a knot that will be at the back of the
neck when the tefillin are worn. This knot is in the shape of the letter dalet. The strap of the hand tefillin is
attached to the bayit to form another knot shaped in the form of the letter yod. The letter shin is worked into the leather of the head tefillin, a
three-pronged shin on the right side of the wearer and a four-pronged shin on the left (this is probably
because of uncertainties as to how this letter should be formed). We now have
the three letters shin, dalet, yod, in the tefillin, forming the word Shaddai, one of the divine names. (Some
have the letter mem instead of the
dalet as the shape of the knot and the three letters then form the word shemi, "My name.")
All these matters are attended to by the manufacturers of
the tefillin, who arrange for the writing to be done by a competent scribe and
for the sections to be inserted into the batim, which are then sewn up and the
straps inserted. Naturally, pious Jews will only buy a set of tefillin from a
reliable, trustworthy merchant. Tefillin often come with a guarantee from a
rabbi that they have been properly prepared.
How to Put On (Lay) Tefillin
The procedure for putting on the tefillin is as follows. The
hand tefillin is taken out of the bag in which the tefillin are reverentially
kept, and placed on the upper part of the left arm [but see below], and the
benediction recited: "Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the
universe, who hast hallowed us by Thy commandments, and hast commanded us to
put on the tefillin." The knot is then tightened and the strap wound seven
times around the arm.
The head tefillin is then taken out of the bag, placed
loosely on the head, and the further benediction recited: "Blessed art
Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast hallowed us by Thy
commandments and hast given us command concerning the precept of
tefillin." The head tefillin are then tightened round the head so that the
bayit rest in the middle of the head
above the forehead and where the hair begins.
The strap of' the hand tefillin is then wound thrice around
the middle finger while the verses (from Hosea 1:21-2) are recited: "And I
will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in
righteousness, and in judgement, and in lovingkindness, and in mercy: I will
even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord."
In the rabbinic tradition, the tefillin are to be worn on
"the weaker hand" (perhaps the idea here is to symbolize that it is
the weaker side of human nature that requires to be strengthened by observing
the precept). For this reason a left-handed man wears the tefillin on his right
arm.
The tefillin are not worn on the Sabbath and festivals. The
reason given is that these are described as a "sign," and so are
tefillin. When these "signs" are present there is no need for
tefillin to be worn. Tefillin are worn only during the day, not at night.
Consequently, tefillin is one of those precepts dependent on time from which
women are exempt. There are one or two references to women wearing tefillin
even though they are exempt, but this is extremely rare. Even women who
nowadays do wear a tallit do not
normally wear tefillin. A minor is not obliged to wear tefillin and the usual
practice is for a boy to begin to wear them just before his Bar mitzvah.
Rabbi Louis Jacobs,
one of the United Kingdom's most distinguished and versatile interpreters of
Judaism, served as rabbi of the New London Synagogue for several decades and
has taught Jewish studies at several British universities. He is the author of The
Book of Jewish Belief, The Book of Jewish
Practice,
and Helping with Inquiries: An Autobiography.
© Louis Jacobs, 1995.
Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this
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