Tefillin (Root: תפל/טפל) also called phylacteries (ancient Greek for "to guard, protect"), are a set of small black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah, and leather straps for binding them to the arm and head. They are wrapped by adult Jews during weekday morning prayers. The arm-tefillin, or shel yad, is placed on the upper arm, and the strap wrapped around the arm/hand, hand and fingers; while the head-tefillin, or shel rosh, is placed above the forehead.
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How do physical rituals produce spiritual and/or psychological transformations?
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What does it mean to be bound? What does it feel like?
The following four biblical passages serve as the foundation for the practice of tefillin.
(1) יהוה spoke further to Moses, saying, (2) “Consecrate to Me every male first-born; human and beast, the first [male] 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 יהוה 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 יהוה has brought you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which was sworn to your fathers to be given 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 יהוה. (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 child on that day, ‘It is because of what יהוה 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 יהוה may be in your mouth—that with a mighty hand יהוה freed you from Egypt. (10) You shall keep this institution at its set time from year to year.
לאות על ידך – לפי עומק פשוטו: יהיה לך לזכרון תמיד, כאילו כתוב על ידך, כעין: שימני כחותם על לבך (שיר השירים ח׳:ו׳).
בין עיניך – כעין תכשיט ורביד זהב שרגילין ליתן על המצח לנוי.
Rashbam, Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir(12th c.)
"a sign on your hand": According to the deep [understanding] of the text: Let [them] be an eternal reminder, as though they were written on your hand, as in, 'Place me as a sign on your heart.'
Between your eyes - Like jewelry or a gold necklace that they usually wear on the forehead for decoration.
והיה לך לאות על ידך ולזכרון בין עיניך – יתכן על שני פירושים: האחד – על דרך: קשרם על גרגרתיך כתבם על לוח לבך (משלי ג׳:ג׳), ויהי טעם לאות כמו: סימן. ומהו: שיהיה לאות ולזכרון הוא כי ביד חזקה – שתאמר כן בלבך ולבנך. וכן הכתוב השני, והיה לאות על ידכהולטוטפת בין עיניך (שמות י״ג:ט״ז), והוא: כי בחוזק יד הוציאנו י״י ממצרים.
ומלת טוטפת זרה במקרא [ואין לה חבר]. והמכחישים אומרים: כי היא מן: {ו}הטף אל דרום (יחזקאל כ״א:ב׳), [ועוד אפרשנה].
R. Abraham Ibn Ezra
Let it be a sign on your hand and a reminder between your eyes - This verse can be explained in two ways - The First, according to: Tie them on your neck, inscribe them on the tablet of your heart.
The meaning of the word 'oht' (sign) here is, a symbol...a symbol that God took us out of Egypt with a strong hand...meaning, that you should say this to yourself in your heart and to your children.
(11) “And when יהוה has brought you into the land of the Canaanites, as [God] swore to you and to your fathers, and has given it to you, (12) you shall set apart for יהוה every first issue of the womb: every male firstling that your cattle drop shall be יהוה’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 male first-born among your children. (14) And when, in time to come, a child of yours asks you, saying, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall reply, ‘It was with a mighty hand that יהוה brought us out from Egypt, the house of bondage. (15) When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, יהוה slew every [male] first-born in the land of Egypt, the first-born of both human and beast. Therefore I sacrifice to יהוה every first male issue of the womb, but redeem every male first-born among my children.’ (16) “And so it shall be as a sign upon your hand and as a symbol on your forehead that with a mighty hand יהוה freed us from Egypt.”
Questions for discussion:
- What are tefillin reminders of according to Exodus?
- How do you see the interplay or tension between liberation and bondage in these texts?
(4) Hear, O Israel! יהוה is our God, יהוה alone. (5) You shall love your God יהוה with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (6) Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. (7) Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. (8) Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead; (9) inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
(13) If, then, you obey the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day, loving your God יהוה and serving [God] with all your heart and soul, (14) I will grant the rain for your land in season, the early rain and the late. You shall gather in your new grain and wine and oil— (15) I will also provide grass in the fields for your cattle—and thus you shall eat your fill. (16) Take care not to be lured away to serve other gods and bow to them. (17) For יהוה’s anger will flare up against you, shutting 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 יהוה is assigning to you. (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, (19) 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; (20) and inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates— (21) to the end that you and your children may endure, in the land that יהוה swore to your fathers to assign to them, as long as there is a heaven over the earth.
Questions for discussion:
- What are tefillin reminders of according to Deuteronomy?
- How do you see the interplay or tension between liberation and bondage in these texts?
Aviva Richman, What Feminist Torah Needs to Look Like panel at Yeshivat Hadar, 2018
"The rabbis interpret the mitzvah to place Torah on our hearts and between our eyes concretely as tiny scrolls of God’s words placed on our physical bodies. The idea is that the divine-human encounter, where God meets world happens through our bodies. God does not meet world on somebody else’s body… and not only in our disembodied souls. God’s presence in the world happens through my body. On my arm, and the work of my hands, and on my head in the depths of my thoughts."
(ג) בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱלֹקֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּ֒שָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לְהָנִיחַ תְּפִלִּין:
(ד) ויכרוך שבע כריכות סביב זרועו, ואחר כך יניח של ראש בגובה ראשו כנגד בין עיניו, וקודם שמהדקן יברך:
(ה) בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱלֹקֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּ֒שָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ עַל מִצְוַת תְּפִלִּין:
(ו) ואחר שיהדק הרצועה על ראשו יאמר:
(ז) בָּרוּךְ שֵׁם כְּבוֹד מַלְכוּתוֹ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד:
(3) Blessed are You, Adonoy our God, King of the Universe, Who sanctified us with the commandments and commanded us to put on tefillin.
(4) Wrap the strap around your arm 7 times and then place the “tefillin of the head” on your head above the region between your eyes, and say:
(5) Blessed are You, Adonoy our God, King of the Universe, Who sanctified us with the commandments, and commanded us concerning the mitzvoh of tefillin.
(6) With the “tefillin of the head” in place, say:
(7) Blessed is God's Name, Whose glorious kingdom is forever and ever.