ב"ה

TEFILLIN CAMPAIGN ● TALKING POINTS TEFILLIN CAMPAIGN ● TALKING POINTS

Tefillin – What They Are

• Tefillin consist of two hollow cubical leather boxes, each on a leather platform, one worn at the hairline – real or figurative – the other on the muscular peak of the weaker upper arm, with leather straps used to affix them. The boxes must be completely square and black.

• The word “Tefillin,” although it sounds conspicuously close to “tefillah,” the word for “prayer,” actually means “attachments,” although the word is also subject to extensive to Rabbinical interpretation. The Gentile term “phylacteries” is entirely improper, coming from the Greek word meaning “things that guard,” inferring that Tefillin are, Heaven forbid, amulets to ward off demonic powers.

• Each of the boxes contains parchments inscribed by a learned, ordained scribe. The Biblical passages inscribed on each are Exodus 13:1-10; 11-16; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 11:12-21. The passages, all containing the mandate to don Tefillin, are written on a single parchment for the arm box and four parchments for the four sub-compartments in the head box.

• Black leather straps inserted in the boxes are used to bind the Tefillin. The knots used to bind the straps to the Tefillin are intricate and are subject to a broad variety of customs. The common denominator of all customs is that the knots represent the letters Sh-D-I, a reference to G-d, the A-mighty. The head box bears the letter Shin on each side. One of them appears oddly with four, rather than three, “prongs,” leading to much Rabbinical conjecture, explanation and Kabbalistic interpretation.

• In donning Tefillin, the arm box is placed on the peak of the muscle of the weaker arm as the blessing is recited. The knot is tightened, and the strap is wound seven times around the forearm. The head Tefillin is placed at the hairline, as the passage usually translated “between your eyes,” actually means, “above your eyes.” Like the knots, the various wrapping of the Tefillin are subject to a broad variety of customs.

• Tefillin are not worn on Sabbath or Biblical holidays, since Tefillin are “signs” of G-d’s covenant, while the Sabbath and holidays are signs of the covenant in and of themselves.

• Tefillin should be worn by day, never by night. Although Tefillin may be worn all day long, we are accustomed to don them in the morning as we offer our morning prayers.

Philosophical Insights

• The Divine mandate of Tefillin, to wrap ones arm and forehead in leather boxes containing parchments inscribed with sacred passages, appears on four separate occasions in the Torah. The repetition is a rarity among commandments. The Rabbinical tradition derives a number of technicalities regarding Tefillin from this anomaly. The rarity also alludes to any number of transcendent truths:

• Four, in and of itself, is a symbol of completeness, the “four corners of the page,” so to speak: four Matriarchs who bore the Twelve Tribes of Israel, four calls of salvation commemorated in the cups of wine at the Passover Seder, four archetypical children, four questions that draw forth an understanding of past, present and future redemption. Is there, then, any wonder that the fourfold commandment of Tefillin first appears not at the Revelation at Sinai but as a response to G-d’s first great act of national salvation – the Exodus from Egypt?

• The repetitive commandment of Tefillin compliments its tandem mandate to teach the ways of G-d to our children “in a diligent manner.” The Hebrew “vi- shinnantam,” however, is more properly translated “in a repetitive manner.” The Tefillin, then, tangibly articulate the truth that ultimate wisdom does not come from abstract “book learning,” but from enlightened and repetitive practice. Studying the virtues of charity and compassion, for example, do not redeem the world. Their repeated practice does.

• Is the first appearance of Tefillin immediately after the Exodus sheer coincidence? No, there are no sheer coincidences. The dehumanizing enslavement to an earthly master meant degrading marks of ownership: tattoo, branding, band soldered to forehead and/or arm. How close do the ennobling wrappings of the Tefillin resemble the demeaning identity symbols of the Israelite slaves during their centuries of servitude? Now, though, the bands became a symbol of true freedom, not wanton bestiality, the ultimate liberation that flows through the deference to a benevolent G-d. Thus, the world regained its primordial equilibrium, replacement of human tyranny with obedience to an all-loving G-d.

• If, then, slavery to man has given way to deference to G-d, Tefillin are daily stimuli of mind, heart and hand through which we remember that the origin of Jewish peoplehood is found in the depths of enslavement. Thus, we are subjected to the single most repeated commandment, to remember that once we were slaves in the land of Egypt. This can only mean that the Children of Israel are duty bound never to enslave others or subject them to the same tyranny that we once tasted.

• How do the small and tangible Tefillin connect us to the infinite and incorporeal G-d? In some nearly incomprehensible, mystical manner, it’s true. The essence of our faith is the myriad ways that the finite and the Infinite intertwine. Each Divinely-mandated commandment that we perform is, in fact, preceded by the celebratory words, “I am doing this mitzvah for the sake of uniting the infinite Holy One with His finite manifestation on earth.”

• As Newsweek recently underscored in its cover story, the renaissance of spirituality has become the focus of international renewal. Thus, the practice of Tefillin being enthusiastically reappraised in the Jewish world as a nexus between the infinite and the mundane. Their historical and Biblical authenticity makes them particularly attractive, as they are perceived as a mystical bond with eternity. Such an articulation of spirituality through Tefillin is not a newcomer to Judaism, but has certainly become a force to reawaken the Jewish soul.

• Realistically, on some mornings, wrapping oneself in Tefillin becomes more of a mechanical exercise. It’s good to keep in shape, regardless. Nonetheless, one will still likely discover that the days that he dons his Tefillin with meaning and thoughtfulness, the time he spends at my work, with family, with study of Torah, with recreation, with G-d, with friends, is all the more delicious. G-d is not a landlord who comes around to collect the rent but an intimate friend. Tefillin, thus, bind us to the Divine, to Jewish peoplehood and to the entirety of G-d’s Creation.

Significance of Outreach

• While the daily donning of Tefillin is a fourfold Biblical commandment, the impetus to share their significance and beauty with fellow Jew has become a special calling of the Chasidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement. The notion of “Chasidic Judaism” is largely misunderstood as simply a euphemism for “ultra-orthodoxy,” even by many Jews. Chasidism is indeed a form of Orthodox Judaism, maintaining that the Jewish Bible (Torah) and Rabbinical tradition are Divinely revealed and completely binding in theology and practice. The moniker “ultra-orthodox,” particularly as it relates to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, could not be further from the truth.

• Inspired by Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, nearly 300 years ago, Chasidism lifted the somber veil off the stoical, intellectually elitist Judaism that had estranged so many simple, salt-of-the-earth Jews. Chasidism replaced the dark sobriety with joyous worship, warmth, and a non-judgmental place for everyone. Indeed, the Baal Shem Tov encountered the Messiah in a vision in which the Messiah declared that he would come to bless the world only when the wellsprings of this joyous, all-embracing Judaism would overflow its bounds.

• Some of the Baal Shem Tov’s disciples ultimately turned self-protective and inward. The Chasidim of Lubavitch (choosing the additional Kabbalistic name, “Chabad”), disciples of the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, have retained a fervent commitment to reach out non-judgmentally, and even at their peril, to Jews everywhere There they bring the message of Judaism’s beauty, enlightenment and the centrality of G-d and His commandments through all of life’s endeavors.

• Seven generations later, the energy of outreach has attained a fever pitch under the insistent guidance of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of blessed memory, simply know as “The Rebbe.” The Rebbe’s charisma and Divine inspiration galvanized an army of Rabbis and their spouses to convey Judaism from metropolitan areas to Jews in the smallest Third World communities, prisons, soldiers under fire, even refuseniks suffering Soviet tyranny, at the peril of their own incarceration, even death.

Tefillin Outreach, Present Tense

• Over his four decades of leadership, The Rebbe’s mandate and organizational skills have established an international network of educational, cultural and outreach entities, many, but certainly not all of them, focused on a local or regional Chabad House guided by one or more Rabbinical couples who bring extensive Jewish leadership strengths to their community. Most often, the couple begins their program from the ground up in areas heretofore relatively untouched by strong Jewish influence. This may entail extreme self-sacrifice, intensified by raising children in a locale often bereft of opportunities for intensive Jewish education, playmates and other resources.

• At the same time, The Rebbe – with Divinely-inspired insight – has frequently declared particularly intensive mitzvah campaigns, typically coordinated by the local Rabbinical couples. The campaign’s purpose is to encourage the performance of a particular as a stimulus for strengthening the Jewish spirit’s relationship to G-d and fellow Jew, and often responds to a particular spiritual or temporal crisis.

• The Rebbe’s emphasis on Tefillin outreach had its origin in 1967, in the days preceding the Six Day War. He reached out to Israeli soldiers and Jews everywhere, regardless of their heretofore-religious commitment, to don Tefillin each day as a source of spiritual strength and a plea for Divine providence. Chabad Rabbis everywhere afforded men the opportunity to wrap themselves in Tefillin. But, the most poignant, dramatic pictures are those of young battle- ready Israeli soldiers, weapon slung over one arm, Tefillin being placed on the other by a Chabad rabbi, facing the immediate threat of kill-or-be-killed.

• Pursuant to the Yom Kippur War, The Rebbe’s mandate of Tefillin outreach is most memorable in young Chabad Rabbis and students taking to the streets in “mitzvah tanks” and affording Jewish men a spiritual oasis in the middle of the workday to learn about Tefillin, don them and offer the Shema Yisroel. But, beyond the highly visible “mitzvah tanks,” Tefillin outreach became integral to Jewish life on college campuses, in smaller communities, through Chabad Houses and in far-flung locations wherever Jews were found.

• The Tefillin outreach, though, was ultimately an “encounter” with Tefillin, a brief opportunity to touch and feel them, don them, recite a brief prayer or two, and then be on ones way. One would be hopeful that the chance encounter would inspire a man to obtain his own Tefillin, and occasionally Chabad could provide a pair as a gift.

• Recently, a magnanimous contribution establishing a Tefillin and Mezuzah Bank has enabled every man in the Jewish world, Bar Mitzvah age and above, to receive a pair of Tefillin as a gift through Chabad, so long as he agrees to don them every day. Likewise, every family who wishes to place a Mezuzah – a small box containing a parchment inscribed with relevant Biblical passages – on the doorpost of their home, may receive one as a gift through the Bank.

• Thus, the current intensified Tefillin outreach campaign focuses on encouraging Jews everywhere to avail themselves of the gifts of the Tefillin and Mezuzah Bank. The local/regional campaign is directed by the Chabad Rabbi in charge, whose responsibilities include community and media relations, curriculum development and education, coordination of activities with other Jewish entities, develop a high profile for the program, serving as conduit for procurement of Tefillin and Mezuzot, building one-on-one relations with program participants, creating activities to network program participants.