Tefillin ( or ; ), or phylacteries, are sets of small black leather boxes with leather straps containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah. Tefillin are traditionally worn by male adult Jews during Shacharit on weekdays.
In Orthodox and traditional Conservative Jewish (including Masorti) communities, they are worn solely by men; some Reform and Conservative communities allow Jewish adults to don tefillin regardless of gender. In Jewish law (Halakha), women are exempt from most time-dependent positive commandments (including the wearing of tefillin). Unlike as with other time-dependent positive commandments, most halakhic authorities rule that female Jews need not fulfill this commandment.
"Tefillin" is the plural form of "tefillah" () but oftentimes used as a singular collective noun. The arm tefillah () is placed on the upper (non-dominant) arm, and the strap wrapped around the forelimb, hand, and middle finger. The head tefillah () is placed between the eyes at the boundary of the forehead and hair. The tefillin are intended to fulfill the Torah's instructions to maintain a continuous "sign" and "remembrance" of the Exodus from Egypt. While historically, Jewish males wore tefillin all day, this is no longer common. The general practice today is to remove them following morning services.
The biblical verses often cited as referring to tefillin are obscure. Deuteronomy 11:18, for example, for instance, does not designate explicitly what specifically to "bind upon [one's] arm", and the definition of "totafot between [one's] eyes" is not obvious. The details are expounded in the Oral Torah. At least as early as the , many Jews understood the biblical commandment to wear tefillin literally and wore some form of physical tefillin, as shown by archaeological finds at Qumran and a reference made in Matthew 23 of the Christian New Testament. However, Karaite Judaism understands the biblical commandment to be metaphorical.
Biblical source The obligation of tefillin is mentioned four times in the Torah: twice when recalling The Exodus from Egypt:
and twice in the Shema passages:
Etymology
In the Hebrew Bible, tefillin are referred to as (), the plural of (ṭoṭepheth), meaning "headband" or "frontlet". Jeffrey H. Tigay argued that the word originally meant "headband", as ornamental bands encircling the head were common among Levantine populations in the Hebrew Biblical period. The scholarly consensus is that is derived from a reduplicated root ṭ-p-ṭ-p () meaning "to encircle" (related to Arabic ṭāfa, "go around" or "encircle") with the feminine suffix -t.Jeffrey H. Tigay, "On the Meaning of Ṭ(W)ṬPT", Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 101, No. 3 (Sep., 1982), pp. 321-331. .
Rabbi Akiva, in Sanhedrin 4b, argued the word (ṭoṭepheth) to be a combination of two foreign words: meant "two" in the Coptic language and meant "two" in the "Afriki" language,The Targum often substitutes the word Afriki for Tarshish, see Kings I 10:22; hence, and means "two and two", corresponding to the four compartments of the head tefillah.Exodus 13:16, s.v. U'letotafot bein ei'neicha This would appear to be an early attempt at etymology. Menahem ben Saruq explains that the word is derived from the Hebrew and , both expressions meaning "speech"—"for when one sees the tefillin it causes him to remember and speak about the Exodus from Egypt".Rashi to Exodus 13:16, s.v. U'letotafot bein ei'neicha
The first texts to use the word (tefillin) are the Targumim and Peshitta,Phylacteries, Jewish Encyclopedia (1906). and it is also used in subsequent Talmudic literature. is the Mishnaic Hebrew plural of (tefillah), used in the Rabbinic literature to individuate a single phylactery. Jastrow connects with the Syriac ("attachments" or "hangings"), thus tefillin would represent the Aramaic equivalent of (ṭoṭepheth). Its resemblance to Hebrew ("prayer") is wholly coincidental.
The English word "phylactery" ( "phylacteries") derives from Ancient Greek ( ), meaning "guarded post, safeguard, security", and in later Greek, "amulet" or "charm".. The word "phylactery" occurs once (in ACC PL) in the Greek New Testament,Woes of the Pharisees, whence it has passed into the languages of Europe. But neither Aquila nor Symmachus uses "phylacteries" in their translations.
Purpose The tefillin are to serve as a reminder of God's intervention at the time of the Exodus from Egypt. Maimonides recorded details of the sanctity of tefillin and wrote that "as long as the tefillin are on the head and on the arm of a man, he is modest and God-fearing and will not be attracted by hilarity or idle talk; he will have no evil thoughts, but will devote all his thoughts to truth and righteousness". The Sefer ha-Chinuch (14th century) adds that the purpose of tefillin is to help subjugate a person's worldly desires and encourage spiritual development. Joseph Caro (16th century) explains that tefillin are placed on the arm adjacent to the heart and on the head above the brain to demonstrate that these two major organs are willing to perform the service of God.
Many have the custom to have high-quality tefillin and beautiful tefillin bags as a hiddur mitzvah. This idea comes from the verse "This is my God and I will glorify Him" (). The Jewish Sages explain: "Is it possible for a human being to add glory to his Creator? What this really means is: I shall glorify Him in the way I perform mitzvot. I shall prepare before Him a beautiful lulav, beautiful sukkah, beautiful fringes (Tsitsit), and beautiful phylacteries (Tefilin)."
Some non-Orthodox scholars think that tefillin may play an apotropaic function. For instance, Yehudah B. Cohn argues that the tefillin should be perceived as an invented tradition aimed at counteracting the popularity of the Greek amulets with an "original" Jewish one. Joshua Trachtenberg considered every ornament worn on the body (whatever its declared function) as initially serving the purpose of an amulet.
In addition, the early Rabbinic sources furnish more or less explicit examples of the apotropaic qualities of tefillin. For instance, Numbers Rabbah 12:3 presents tefillin as capable of defeating "a thousand demons" emerging on "the left side", rabbis Yohanan and Nahman used their sets to repel the demons inhabiting privies,BT Berakhot 23a-b whereas Elisha the Winged, who was scrupulous in performing this mitzvah, was miraculously saved from the Roman persecution.BT Shabbat 49a Also, tefillin are believed to possess life-lengthening qualities,Suggested in BT Menahot 36b, 44a-b and in BT Shabbat 13a-b and they are often listed in one breath among various items which are considered amuletic in nature.As is the case in M Kelim 23:1, M Eruvin 10:1 and BT Eruvin 96b-97a Though tefillin are sometimes mentioned together with amulets in the Talmud due to certain similarities of form, they are never identified as such, but specifically differentiated from them.
Manufacture and contents
The manufacturing processes of tefillin are intricate and governed by hundreds of detailed rules.
Boxes In earlier Talmudic times, tefillin were either cylindrical or cubical, but later the cylindrical form became obsolete. Nowadays the boxes should be fashioned from a single piece of animal hide and form a base with an upper compartment to contain the parchment scrolls. They are made in varying levels of quality. The most basic form, called peshutim ("simple"), are made using several pieces of parchment to form the inner walls of the head tefillin. The higher quality tefillin, namely dakkot ("thin"), made by stretching a thin piece of leather, and the more durable gassot ("thick") are both fashioned from the single piece of hide.
The main box which holds the tefillin scrolls, known as ketzitzah (קציצה), is cubical. Below it is a wider base known as the titura (תיתורא). At the back of the titura is a passageway (ma'avarta, מעברתא) through which the tefillin strap is threaded, to tie the tefillin in place.
On both sides of the head-tefillin, the Hebrew letter shin () is moulded; the shin on the wearer's left side has four branches instead of three.
Nowadays it is customary to paint the tefillin black, but archaeological findings show that it is not certain that it was always this way.
Straps Black leather straps (retsu'ot) pass through the rear of the base and are used to secure the tefillin onto the body. The knot of the head-tefillin strap forms the letter dalet () or double dalet (known as the square-knot) while the strap that is passed through the arm-tefillin is formed into a knot in the shape of the letter yud (). Together with the shin on the head-tefillin box, these three letters spell Shaddai (), one of the names of God.
The straps must be black on their outer side, but may be any color except red on their inner side.Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 32:3 A stringent opinion requires them to be black on the inner side too,Shut Shevet Halevi 9:16 but more commonly the inner side is left the color of leather.
The Talmud specifies that tefillin straps must be long enough to reach one's middle finger, and records the practice of Rav Aha bar Jacob to tie and then "matleit" (plait? wind three times?) them.Menachot 35b However, the passage leaves unclear where the measuring is done from, whether the reference is to hand- or head-tefillin, and what exactly the meaning of "matleit" is. Combining and interpreting the Talmud's statements, Maimonides, Tur, and Shulchan Aruch ruled that the strap of hand-tefillin must reach from where the tefillin is placed on the arm, as far as the middle finger, where it must be wound three times around the middle finger.Mishneh Torah Hilchot Tefillin 13:12; Tur Hilchot Tefillin 27:8; Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 27:8 Rema wrote that it is not necessary to wind around the finger (rather, the straps must be long enough that one could wind around the finger);Darchei Moshe haKatzar Orach Chaim 27 letter 5 however, this leniency does not appear in his comments to the Shulchan Aruch. In addition to the windings around the finger, the Shulchan Aruch states that the custom is to wind six or seven times around the forearm.Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 27:8
Parchment scrolls
The four biblical passages which refer to the tefillin, mentioned above, are written on scrolls and placed inside the leather boxes. The arm-tefillin has one large compartment, which contains all four biblical passages written upon a single strip of parchment; the head-tefillin has four separate compartments in each of which one scroll of parchment is placed.BT Menachot 34b This is because the verses describe the hand-tefillin in the singular ("sign"), while in three of four verses, the head-tefillin is described in the plural ("totafot").
The passages are written by a scribe with special ink on parchment scrolls (klaf). These are: "Sanctify to me ..." (Exodus 13:1–10); "When YHWH brings you ..." (Exodus 13:11–16); "Hear, O Israel ..." (Deuteronomy 6:4–9); and "If you observe My Commandments ..." (Deuteronomy 11:13-21). The Hebrew Ashuri script must be used and there are three main styles of lettering used: Beis Yosef – generally used by Ashkenazim; Arizal – generally used by Hasidim; Velish – used by Sefardim.
The texts have to be written with halachically acceptable (acceptable according to Jewish law) ink on halachically acceptable parchment. There are precise rules for writing the texts and any error invalidates it. For example, the letters of the text must be written in order - if a mistake is found later, it cannot be corrected as the replacement letter would have been written out of sequence. There are 3188 letters on the parchments, and it can take a sofer (scribe) as long as 15 hours to write a complete set.What is Tefillin?, www.stam.net. Retrieved 1 July 2011
Ordering of scrolls (Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam tefillin)