Tefillin Project
The Partners in Torah Tefillin and Mezuzah program has been designed to provide highly-subsidized Tefillin and Mezuzahs to participants* who wish to upgrade their mitzvah observance in these important areas of Jewish life. The over 245 recipients of Tefillin and Mezuzahs in the three years that the program has been running include college students home from a meaningful trip to Israel, bar mitzvah boys, and a senior who started attending the daily minyan to say kaddish for his wife! A quick phone call to Partners in Torah headquarters can put you – or your Partner – on the road to observing these priceless mitzvahs without breaking the bank.
For more information, please contact us at 732-363-3330
*Participation in our program is required
The Tefillin project is dedicated to the memory of Shlomo ben Shmuel Yosef ז”ל
Tefillin, Nothing More Than Tefillin
Those funny-looking leather boxes and straps – they’re called “phylacteries” in English or something like that – that each of us (men) received on the day we “became a man” … remember them?
I remember the first time I put the Tefillin on my head and arm and wrapped the straps seven times around my hand and fingers. It felt so fresh and exciting!
The strange thing is, though, that for many years I hadn’t bothered to ask anyone, or to study on my own, why Jewish men even wear the Tefillin! I just took it for granted that when you become a bar- mitzvah, certain things just happen – you get lots of money from relatives you never knew you had, plus you get kissed and pinched on the cheek by all your great aunts and all at the same time, and you also get those funky Tefillin to wear just like your Dad got when he was “bar-mitzvahed” many years before. But just exactly why we wear Tefillin … I was totally clueless.
Well, you can imagine the reaction of our ancestors in Egypt when they were commanded by G-d about the Tefillin the very first time! In this week’s Torah portion (see Exodus 13:9), Moses approaches the people and instructs them to write some words on parchment and insert them into two black boxes and to attach leather straps to them and to wear these boxes on their heads and arms. The Jews probably said, “Moses, you want us to do what?”
I am sure that the original “men in leather” who were what we might today call the “generation ex- odusers”, asked Moses plenty of questions about the meaning of this seemingly strange ritual, and they didn’t just take it for granted like so many of us bar- mitzvah boys have done in subsequent generations.
And that’s the way it should be – we should try to understand the depth of this and many other beautiful rituals and customs that have been handed down to us throughout the ages. But, unfortunately, many of us have let those lonely Tefillin languish in a basement closet under old issues of MAD Magazine like some ancient relic of a distant past.
We owe it to those very first Jews hanging out in the desert and to our own grandparents and great- grandparents who always made sure to put on Tefillin once a day, to at least explore for ourselves the meaning and symbolism of this interesting and strange commandment.
For starters, I recommend a wonderful, short, and very readable book on the subject called Tefillin (how original!) written by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, and available at your local Jewish bookstore (sold as a separate book or as part of The Aryeh Kaplan Anthology Vol. II). Trust me … after reading this book, you are guaranteed to have a much greater understanding and appreciation of this fascinating ritual! (And even women who don’t wear Tefillin will learn so much from this amazing book – including the answer to the question why women don’t wear Tefillin!)
Even better, I recommend that you stop by your nearest synagogue on a Sunday morning (or any other morning of the week except Saturday) and try on a pair for size. Hey, you might look real good in leather!