Cities - Jerusalem - Tefillin

A word about tefillin. They are the black "boxes" (some people call them "phylacteries") that observant Jews wear during the morning prayers. They are the “antenna” that capture the spiritual influx of the day and pass it on to the Jewish person who puts them on. You may see people donning tefillin as you pass by the stand to the left as you enter the Kotel area. They consist of a “hand” phylactery and a “head” phylactery, corresponding to the Biblical commandment (recited in the Shema) to “bind them upon your arm and between your eyes.” Each phylactery consists of a hard leather box, or "bayit" in which are encased parchments inscribed with verses from the Torah. Judaism demands that we subjugate our intellect and our emotional faculties to G-d. This doesn’t mean that we don’t have our own minds and our own feelings. It means that we must try to see that our minds and feelings are permeated and infused with G-dliness and spirituality. That is the reason that Jews don tefillin.

According to Kabbalah, a new and different influx of G-dliness permeates the creation every day. The command to wrap the phylacteries ("tefillin" in Hebrew) upon our arms and heads ensures that we access this daily spirituality and internalize it, through our minds and emotions. The sages of Kabbalists and Chassidic masters tell us that the influx begins with the mind (hence the head phylacteries) and then penetrate and permeate the heart (hence the arm phylacteries, corresponding to the heart). The straps starting at the head and tumbling over the chest represent the process of permeation and penetration of spirituality from the highest levels above the intellect, all the way down to the lowest emotional and instinctual faculties of the person.

Judaism attributes so much importance to Tefillin that they are said to “correspond to the entire Torah.” (This is said regarding other mitzvot as well, such as Shabbat, tzitzit and tzedako (charity). If you’re a man and never donned tefillin in your life, then it’s a MUST (otherwise, the Talmud says your soul will not get to enjoy the Afterlife). If you’re a man and you have put on Tefillin in your life, then it’s a Must (every day). If you’re a woman, then this is a time-bound positive command from which you are exempt.