ON SITE › Shira Yehudit Djalilmand | Photos › Menachem Kalish THE MIX How did Moshe Rabbeinu make his tefillin in the Midbar? REB NOACH GREENBERG of Tzfas Wrapped came up with one answer, and is using his method to teach IN A bar mitzvah boys Mıtzvah worldwide 360 MISHPACHA 11 Tishrei 5781 | September 29, 2020 MISHPACHA 361 ON SITE THE MIX A Holy TASK EACH BOY IS SEATED at a Before any work is done, the table beside his father, with boys wash netilas yadayim. This a sheet of goatskin in front of is a sacred task, Reb Noach tells them. them, and, just like the Kohanim Teaching the craft of tefillin would wash their hands making to preteen boys required before their service in the Beis Reb Noach to develop his own Hamikdash, and as a sofer stam unique method. For the batim, does today before he begins to he decided to use thin goatskin write, so we do before making parchment instead of thick tefillin. cowhide leather. That enabled The boys then see and handle him to fashion a single piece the components of tefillin — that could be formed into a klaf, batim, parshiyos, the hair bayis using origami-like folding of a calf’s tail used to tie up the techniques. (Many older sifrei parshiyos, and the gid, or sinew Torah, particularly those in thread that stitches the batim the older shuls of Tzfas, were closed. All the while, Reb Noach written on goatskin parchment.) continues with his probing, To engage the boys, he kicks incisive questions. Why do we off the introductory session use the hair of a calf tail? (For with some questions: What is all the answers, you’ll have kedushah? What are tefillin? to attend one of Reb Noach’s THE SETTING FOR THIS SESSION of Reb Noach What’s leather? How is it made? workshops….) Greenberg’s hands-on Kesher Tefillin workshop is Especially powerful is the quote And then, before the boys appropriate for this well-known artist and educator who from the Shulchan Aruch (Orach begin the real job, they declare has been creating Judaica from wood for the past 35 years. Chaim 37:1, Mishnah Berurah) importantly in a loud voice, We’re sitting in the Old City of Tzfas, under the shade of that details the huge reward as halachah requires ‘‘L’sheim vines, surrounded by olive, lemon, and esrog trees, in the courtyard for the mitzvah of tefillin, kedushas tefillin!” Reb Noach of this ancient stone home, built centuries ago as a way station for as described by the Chofetz emphasizes that these words, traveling merchants. The rooms now housing Reb Noach’s operation Chaim — long life, a guaranteed repeated at every stage of the were once used to stable horses. place in the World to Come, process, center the person’s Reb Noach's Kesher Tefillin course, in which boys actually make invulnerability to the fires of thoughts and signify his their own tefillin, is renowned for its inspirational power. But this Gehinnom, and forgiveness intention that all these practical particular class, being held for Reb Noach’s own first three grandsons for our sins — and all this for tasks are for the sake of a holy approaching bar mitzvah, along with their fathers, has special wearing little black boxes. mitzvah. significance. 362 MISHPACHA 11 Tishrei 5781 | September 29, 2020 MISHPACHA 363 THE MIX NOMIX-UPS SUDDENLY, EACH BOY is holding a pair of perfect batim. In the “regalim” adding up to 613. following sessions, Reb Noach brings kosher parshiyos, which Some stages are harder than others. Folding the batim of the the boys tie up with calf hair and insert into the batim. The tefillin shel rosh, for example, takes a great deal of time and tefillin are then sewn with cows’ sinew, and the boys learn to tie effort, and triggers numerous cries for help. From a halachic the special knots in the retzuos (straps). standpoint, Reb Noach explains that inserting the parshiyos is All ten critical steps, from the initial cutting to tying the the most stressful part, as it must be done just right. straps, have been carried out by the boys themselves. When they Imagine, he says, 30 students in a classroom, each with four become obligated in the mitzvah, they will be performing it with parshiyos all rolled up. The moment these are unrolled, amid tefillin they made themselves. commotion and excitement, they are at risk of falling on the floor Making tefillin is an arduous task, but Reb Noach is an expert and getting mixed up. And if the wrong parshiyos go into the hand at sweeping the boys along with his enthusiasm so it feels wrong batim, those tefillin arepassul — and no one will know. not like a job, but a privilege. He’s also an expert at mixing “You can’t imagine how much sleep I’ve lost worrying about information and interest into his presentation — too much dry this,” he admits. data and the boys will lose interest, too many stories and the His concern caused him to seek rabbinical advice, as he does essential info will get lost. He throws in fascinating gems, such regarding every step of the process, and that particular problem ABOVE as the gematria of the two shins on the tefillin along with their was largely solved by the simple step of numbering the parshiyos. the Fold THE BOYS GET DOWN TO WORK. The first stage is place for everything. cutting out the pattern of the bayis from the sheet of Next comes the origami-like folding stage. Reb parchment. The shape is marked with tiny holes, but Noach explains that there are over 100 folds to has to be punched out by hammering very hard with a make, and, using a “makel hakadosh” — a “holy stick” wooden mallet. (The boys enjoyed this part.) (actually a popsicle stick) — the boys work hard Next, because halachah requires that the Hebrew (with help from their fathers) making creases in the letter shin be embossed on the sides of the tefillin appropriate places and directions, and the boys see the shel rosh, the boys do this using something rather tefillin gradually begin to take on their familiar form. like a very large hole punch. Then the oddly shaped As they progress, they become more and more pieces of parchment are taken to a different table and involved and excited. When Reb Noach sensibly sprayed liberally with black paint. (Reb Noach explains suggests a short break — everyone’s been working that this, like the other ten steps of this process, are for two hours solid, outside, in a record heat wave — halachah l’Moshe miSinai.) the boys insist on continuing. A class has to be that Reb Noach is incredibly organized and efficient, and absorbing for a bunch of 12-year-olds to be ready and at the same time, very cool, calm, relaxed, and friendly willing to dedicate so much time and effort to it. (And — and patient with the boys. The whole presentation these workshops continue for roughly four hours, runs like a well-oiled machine, with a set time and three times.) 364 MISHPACHA ON SITE Internal BEAUTY Some readers might reasonably wonder if such unusual tefillin, made of thin goatskin parchment rather than thick leather, are actually kosher. Before launching the project, Reb Noach took his prototype tefillin to Rav Nissim Karelitzztz”l in Bnei Brak for approval. Says Reb Noach, “Rav Karelitz and his entire beis din opened them up, checked them, and asked lots of questions as to how they were made. He finally pronounced, ‘These are tefillin!’ ” The Kesher Tefillin method and educational program have used today, which are a good deal heavier, are a relatively recent the support and approval of numerous prominent rabbis, innovation — no more than perhaps 80 to 100 years.” among them Rav Yisroel Belsky and the Novominsker Rebbe, Although the tefillin are kosher, in order to keep the project zichronam livrachah; and Rav Sariel Rosenberg, Jerusalem’s affordable, Reb Noach generally uses the simplest kosher Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Aryeh Stern, and Tzfas’s Chief Rabbi materials (parshiyos, retzuos) as approved by the project’s Shmuel Eliyahu. rabbanim, while offering moremehudar options. The standard Still, the halachah is that only Jewish males over the age of 13 parshiyos are perhaps less mehudar than more expensive ones. are permitted to make tefillin, so how can Reb Noach allow pre– But beauty extends beyond the external. bar mitzvah boys to make them? Reb Noach received the psak As one father wrote to Reb Noach, “My son has made the that if an appropriate adult supervises the boy and physically most beautiful tefillin I have ever seen. I know he put his heart helps him with the critical stages, the tefillin are kosher. and soul into it and I just wish you could have been there to see As to whether anyone would want a pair of tefillin somewhat his face when he gave them to me. I believe it means more to different from the norm, Reb Noach points out, “These tefillin him than we’ll ever know… and that is what makes these tefillin may actually be closer to the traditional mesorah. The tefillin so beautiful.” Tracing the Pattern How did Reb Noach dream up this whole concept? as an artist. Having executed multiple projects using paper- “I was learning the halachos of tefillin with my son for his bar engineering techniques, including an origami-style fold-up mitzvah, back in about 2005,” he relates. “I started thinking cardboard tzedakah box, he made the connection.