Jewish Law As A Journey - Tefillin

(1) The LORD spoke further to Moses, saying, (2) “Consecrate to Me every first-born; man and beast, the first issue of every womb among the Israelites is Mine.” (3) And Moses said to the people, “Remember this day, on which you went free from Egypt, the house of bondage, how the LORD freed you from it with a mighty hand: no leavened bread shall be eaten. (4) You go free on this day, in the month of Abib. (5) So, when the LORD has brought you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall observe in this month the following practice: (6) “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a festival of the LORD. (7) Throughout the seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten; no leavened bread shall be found with you, and no leaven shall be found in all your territory. (8) And you shall explain to your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the LORD did for me when I went free from Egypt.’ (9) “And this shall serve you as a sign on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead—in order that the Teaching of the LORD may be in your mouth—that with a mighty hand the LORD freed you from Egypt. (10) You shall keep this institution at its set time from year to year.

(11) “And when the LORD has brought you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and has given it to you, (12) you shall set apart for the LORD every first issue of the womb: every male firstling that your cattle drop shall be the LORD’s. (13) But every firstling ass you shall redeem with a sheep; if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. And you must redeem every first-born male among your children. (14) And when, in time to come, your son asks you, saying, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘It was with a mighty hand that the LORD brought us out from Egypt, the house of bondage. (15) When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD slew every first-born in the land of Egypt, the first-born of both man and beast. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD every first male issue of the womb, but redeem every first-born among my sons.’ (16) “And so it shall be as a sign upon your hand and as a symbol on your forehead that with a mighty hand the LORD freed us from Egypt.”

(18) Therefore impress these My words upon your very heart: bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead.

What the Shulchan Arukh means is to teach that you need kavannah for tefillin as it says, "It shall be a sign...in order that the Teaching of the LORD may be in your mouth—that with a mighty hand the LORD freed you from Egypt"

(5) When putting them on, have in mind that God commanded us to "put these four passages which contain [the principle of] monotheism and the Exodus on the arm opposite the heart and the head opposite the brain so that we may remember the miracles and wonders that He did for us which indicate His Unity and that He is omnipotent in heaven and on earth." And to submit to God his soul, which resides in the brain as well as his heart which represents physical desire. Through this he will remember the Creator and moderate is pleasure[-seeking].

God told the Jewish people that they are to learn Torah day and night. The Jewish people said: Master of the World, are we really capable of learning Torah all day and all night? God replied: My children, place tefillin on your heads and your arms! [By wearing the tefillin, it will be as if] you are learning Torah day and night, as the verse state: "It shall be for you a sign on your arm and reminder between your eyes, so that Hashem's Torah may be in your mouth.

Da'at, the etymology of which is to be found in the verse: "And Adam knew (yada) Eve," implies attachment and union. That is, one binds his mind with a very firm and strong bond to, and firmly fixes his thought on, the greatness of the blessed En sof, without diverting his mind [from Him]. For even one who is wise and understanding of the greatness of the blessed En Sof, will not— unless he binds his knowledge and fixes his thought with firmness and perseverance— produce in his soul true love and fear, but only vain fancies. Therefore da'at is the basis of the middot and the source of their vitality; it contains chesed and gevurah, that is to say, love with its offshoots and fear with its offshoots.

Rabba bar Rav Huna says: A person is obligated to touch his phylacteries regularly for the entire time that he is wearing them. This is derived from an a fortiori inference from the frontplate of the High Priest, as follows: And if with regard to the frontplate, which has only one mention of God’s name, the Torah states: “And it should be always upon his forehead” (Exodus 28:38), which means that the High Priest must always be aware that the frontplate is placed on his head and that he should not be distracted from it, then with regard to phylacteries, which have numerous mentions of God’s name, all the more so one must always be aware of them.

(1) A person should regularly touch his tefillin so that he should not become distracted from them. When doing so he should touch his shel yad first. When reading the words "וקשרתם לאות על ידך" he should touch his shel yad and when he reads "לטטפת בין עיניך" he should touch his shel rosh.

(2) It is a Mitzvah to have them [tefillin] on all day, but because they [tefillin] need a clean body [meaning that] he does not pass gas, and [further require] that one not distract his mind from them, and not every person is able to be careful with them, the practice is not to wear them all day. Nevertheless everyone needs to be careful with them when they are on during the reciting of Shema and Tefilah [aka Shemoneh Esreh] [because we concentrate on holy things at those times anyway].

This is referring to the tefillin on your head because they are on the top of the head and we see that they are fitting to be seen, but the tefillin on the arm is covered as it says: "to you as a sign on your hand" for you, and not for others.