From the Religious Practices Committee - March 2000

(This Committee will be publishing a series of articles explaining the meaning and history of certain rituals. This article is contributed by Mel Schwartz.)

PHYLACTERIES or TEFILIN is perhaps derived from the Hebrew word tefillah or prayer. The phylacteries are small boxes or cases of black leather, which contain four sections from the Torah written on parchment. Leather straps are attached to these boxes. The phylacteries, which originally and properly were to be worn constantly, are now worn on the left hand and on the head only at the morning service, with the exception of Shabbat and the five principal holidays.

The four sections from the Torah tell of the basic requirements of Judaism: the first is the unconditional love of one God; the second is the rewards for the observance of God's commandments and the punishment for disobedience to them; the third and fourth tell of the redemption of Israel from Egyptian bondage. The sections of the Torah are written on four small pieces of parchment for the head phylacteries but on one strip of parchment in the hand phylacterie. These are regarded as a protection against sin and in the early days thought to be a protection against all evils.

The custom of putting on the phylacteries or "laying tefilin" is derived from the words of Deuteronomy 6-8: "…and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes."

The phylacteries are put on the left hand and arm over and against the heart and on the forehead which in an enlarged symbolical sense means to put your head, heart and hand at the service of your God. Left- handed men put them on their right hand and arm. Men over the age of thirteen are required to lay tefilin.

Women are never required to lay tefilin and today most Reform Jews do not perform this mitzvah, as they regard this Biblical commandment as purely figurative. There are some Reform Jews, men and women alike, who do lay tefilin, however.

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