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Tefillin the HAZAN EDITION tefillin THE HAZAN EDITION THE JEWISH LIFE SERIES what are tefillin? A SYMBOL OF BEAUTY, STRENGTH AND ROYALTY Wearing Tefillin daily is one of the most essential practices in all of Judaism. Tefillin are a set of specially crafted leather boxes contain- ing parchments handwritten with sections from the Torah. The Torah sections in Tefillin speak of remembering God’s miracles in freeing us from Egypt, entering the Land of Israel, belief in God, Passover, sanctifying the firstborn and the command to wear Tefillin. tefillin are Cutaway of Head Tefillin showing four Cutaway of Hand Tefillin showing a chambers each housing a single scroll single scroll housed in one chamber Israel’s One box is bound to the arm (with leather straps called Retzuot strength in Hebrew) and one box rests on the head (also held in place with leather straps). While wearing Tefillin we are connecting to God with the fullness of our body, emotions and intellect. The Hand Tefillin have a single chamber containing a strip of parchment with four Torah portions written on it. The Head Tefillin has four chambers, each containing a strip of parchment with a single Torah portion written on it. The verse below is one of four places* where the Torah instructs us to wear Tefillin. וקשרתם לאות על ידך והיו ולטוטפת בן עיניך And you will bind them for a sign on your arm and they will be for a sign (“totafos”) between your eyes U’Kshartam L’os al yadecha, V’Hayu L’totafos Bein Einecha *The four places are, Deut.6:4-9; Deut. 11:13-21; Exodus 13:1-10; and Exodus 13:11-16 BABYLONIAN TALMUD: BRACHOT 6A Tefillin convey the awesomeness of God and His TEFILLIN ARE FREEDOM: Tefillin reminder us of wonders: The writings of the Master Kabbalist, Rabbi the abundant love we received during the Exodus Isaac Luria conatin some of the most profound and when God made the impossible, possible and per- beautiful teachings concerning how Tefillin connect sonally took us out of the bondage of Egypt. We us to levels of consciousness and wisdom far above emerged as individuals (and a people) with the our own. Rabbi Luria’s words can take many years to understand, but we can get a hint of the mysteries he ability to manifest all our power and potential. alludes to through the words of one of the greatest Every day we live with this freedom and possibility. minds of the 20th century... Tefillin remind us of this. “The most beautiful and deepest experience a man TEFILLIN ARE TRANSFORMATION: Our lives are can have is the sense of the mysterious. It is the a journey of personal evolution and growth to underlying principle of religion as well as all serious become more God-like as we elevate and refine endeavour in art and science. He who never had this the world around us. When we take material items experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least such as leather and parchment and make Tefillin blind. To sense that behind anything that can be from them, those items become transformed and experienced there is a something that our mind elevated into something sacred. So too when cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly... To me it suffices to wearing Tefillin, our physicality is transformed into wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to a vehicle for the Divine and we connect to the grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty source of unlimited blessing. structure of all that there is.” - Albert Einstein. “What our mind cannot grasp” we can get a sense of through the Mitzvah of Tefillin... HAND TEFILLIN וקשרתם לאות על ידך תפילין של יד The Hand Tefillin are placed on the bicep near the heart (and slightly leaning towards the heart). They are worn on the weaker hand (so a righty would place Tefillin on his left arm). Shown at left is the scroll resting in the “house” of the Hand Tefillin. What we know can’t The Bayis or “house” The Bayis contains one scroll of the scrolls must be with four Torah Parhsiyot or The wider base of the stay in the head. perfectly square sections written on it Head and Hand Tefillin is called the Titura The Kesher or knot of the Knowledge must be Hand Tefillin is tied in the shape of the Hebrew letter and should always ”י - Yud“ be touching the Bayis reflected in action. The straps that affix the Tefillin to the arm or head are known as Retzuot As we project our power into the world in pursuit of our heart’s desires, the Hand Tefillin that rest near the heart reminds us that our actions should be imbued with awareness of God. A single scroll is rolled up and inserted in the The scroll contains four Torah portions.The scrollBayis canor onlyhousing be written of the Handon hide Tefillin. coming from a kosher animal with permanent black ink. The parchments, after being rolled (Hand Tefillin) or folded (Head Tefillin) are tied shut with the hair of a kosher animal. no matter how powerful we may be, there is strength beyond our strength and when we recognize that truth and bend our strength and desires before that greater power, we grow truly strong when we put on the hand tefillin we put our power and passions before God and in his service HEAD TEFILLIN תפילין של ראש The Head Tefillin is placed just above the hair- line, centered between the eyes. The housing or “Bayis” of the Hand and Head Tefillin and the straps must be painted all black. The Head Tefillin והיו ולטוטפת בן עיניך The four chambers of the Head A few threads of calf’s hair Tefillin are clearly distinct. Each .is are a Royal Crown ”ש - that are wrapped around the contains one scroll with a section The Hebrew letter “Shin folded scroll of V’haya Im of Torah: Kadesh, V’haya KiYiviacha, upraised on the Bayis. On one Shamoa must emerge from Shema, V’haya Im Shamoa side the Shin has 3 heads, on the the housing. There are deep other it has 4. This is one of the mystical reasons for this only places in Judaism where When we wear with 4 heads ש - there is a Shin The knot that will hold them while being the Tefillin on the head is shaped like the Hebrew mindful of God, they ”ד - letter “Dalet The extension of the Tefillin where the strap become a radiant passes through is called the Ma’abarta or bridge jewel, shining light and inspiration to the world. The Bayis of both the Head and Hand Tefillin are sewn closed with thread madeGid of” in sinews Hebrew) from a kosher animal. (The thread is called “ no matter how intelligent we may be, there is wisdom beyond our wisdom and when we bow our heads before that wisdom we become truly wise the head tefillin are a bridge connecting us to God while transmitting a higher knowledge THE LETTERS & THE SCROLLS אותיות, קלף והלכות ס”תם יודע היה בצלאל לצרף אותיות A specially trained scribe (called a Sofer) writes שנבראו בהם שמים וארץ .the Torah sections that are placed inside the Tefillin The writing is in a special Hebrew script called Babylonian Talmud, Brachos, 55a Ktav Ashurit. The script must be written accord- ing to a detailed set of laws in order to be valid Through his knowledge of the secrets for use in Torah scrolls, Tefillin and Mezuzot. of the Hebrew letters, Bezalel was able to work with the forces of creation The Sages teach that the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are the building blocks of creation. In the writings of Kabbalah we learn that each letter of the Alef-Bet is a channel of Divine energy and reveals a certain aspect of God. Every single detail of how the letters are written is critical. The letters contain the forces of creation and when written correctly on parchment according to the laws of safrut then the parchment scroll is considered “kosher” and acquires holiness. A kosher scroll is an absolute requirement for Sifrei Torah (Torah Part of the Shema scroll, actual size scrolls), Tefillin and Mezuzot. Collectively this group of scrolls is refered to as STaM (an acronym for Sifrei Torah, Tefillin and Mezuzot). The body of laws governing the writing and production of these scrolls is known as Hilchos Stam. When the scroll is kosher we may make a blessing over it and use it in the performance of the Mitzvah it pertains to. Having a kosher scroll written by a conscientious scribe is critical, for if a person says a blessing to put Sofer Michael Khanin writing the Torah section of V’haya Im Shamoa for the Head Tefillin TEFILLINSCROLLS on Tefillin or place a Mezuzah upon his or her doorpost or read from a Torah but the scroll is not kosher, then the blessing has been said in vain and the person has not performed the Mitzvah. There are many issues a scribe must be aware of when writing. Some of the issues concern letters not written correctly (so that a letter appears as another letter), or one letter touching another, or a letter not surround- ed by white space (known as Mukaf G’vil). All these cases (and many oth- ers) make a scroll “passul” or invalid for use. The idea that our thoughts and intentions matter comes to life in Jewish law. Every element of the production of Tefillin must be done for the sake of Tefillin, this is known as Lishmah.
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