Tefillin Quotes

In Jewish tradition it is forbidden to throw away writings invoking the name of God. Prayer books. Scrolls. Encyclopedias. Garments. Tefillin straps. Even pamphlets or cartoon books. Instead of being destroyed, the texts are interred in a genizah, a burial place for the written word.

Two types of sweets were served with the tea: one was varenya, a chunky jam chock-full of whole pieces of fruit, usually grapes. (Who had money for strawberries? my aunt Batsheva pointed out when she read a draft of this book.) The other was “herring tails,” as my grandfather called herring, which was to him—and now to me—better than any sweet the world over. Grandpa Aharon called it selyodka and told the following story about it: In the shop that his family had “back there” in Makarov, in Ukraine, “we sold products for the body, products for the soul, and products for between the two.” When I asked him what he meant by that, he explained. “Products for the body were axes and hoes and boots for the Ukrainian farmers. Products for the soul were tallises, tefillin, and prayer books for the Jews.” Then he fell silent and stared at me in order to get me to ask what the products in between the two were. “Grandpa,” I said, “and what were the products in between the two?” “In between the two,” he chuckled, “is selyodka, herring. It’s for both the body and the soul.

«Hai visto il mio tatuaggio, giusto?» Sollevò una manica. «Rappresenta il tefillin, le cinghie di cuoio con un piccolo astuccio quadrato che gli uomini ebrei indossano attorno alle braccia o sulla fronte durante la preghiera mattutina. Contiene una piccola pergamena con le parole della Torah, la legge.» Denver sfiorò il tatuaggio con un dito, fermandosi sulla scritta. «Che cosa vuol dire?» «Ahava. La parola ebraica che indica amore. Per me, la Torah parla d’amore, ma non è così che la vedono i miei genitori o la loro religione. Comunque, provai a onorarli come potevo. Continuai a seguire i comandamenti, e misi da parte i miei desideri. Non guardavo gli uomini. Mi masturbavo solamente quando la pressione diventava insopportabile, ma mi costringevo a non pensare a niente mentre lo facevo. Credevo che, se non avessi ceduto all’attrazione che provavo per gli uomini, sarebbe scomparsa, e poi ho incontrato te.» Denver giocò con la sua mano, tenendo lo sguardo basso. «Lo rimpiangi?» Judah gli sollevò il mento con l’indice destro. «No. Mai. La mia vita era così buia prima di te. Mi hai ridato la luce e la felicità, Denver. Mi hai riportato in vita.»

The tefillin were perceived as magical figurative symbols, and the use of such amulets, attached to the head or arms, were practiced in the ancient world by pagans, long before the first century.

Furthermore, holy writings attached to the body and portrayed as amulets were used by various pagan peoples. For example, an amulet which resembles tefillin was discovered in Mesopotamia.

The Sages have considered the tefillin as amulets of divine power which could protect men. Their final shape and form, as was determined by the rabbis, is clearly taken from ancient Egypt, where a figure of a sacred snake was tied to the head as a good luck charm, and this resembles the traditional tefillin.

The Shema was-and is- the mantra of a manna-nourished people, the restorative words of those whose ancestors had wandered the wilderness in search of home. Traditionally, Jews have recited this prayer twice a day, morning and evening; a ritual repetition suggests that we need the regular reminder. Many Jews also have the verses inscribed on miniature scrolls and contained within tefillin, tiny boxes worn during worship, or mezuzot, small cases attached to the doorframes of their homes. The Shema is, like so many prayers, not so much an act of telling God something about what we are experiencing than a ritual of recentering ourselves-not on our own certainty but on our own faith; not on the futile chase for all knowledge but on the path toward relationship with the only One who can be a true know-it-all; not on ourselves but on the One who made us and the One who is with us. "We are all interconnected in this world, every rock and stone, every creature," says Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, the senior cantor at New York City's Central Synagogue, who grew up reciting this prayer with her sister every night and now does the same with her own three children. The Shema offers a steady reminder: "God is in all things." But if this were easy to remember, and if this path were painless, and if this journey were easy, and if loving God-or even just recognizing God-weren't so counterintuitive, why exactly would you need all your heart, all your soul, and all your might?

Chanukah In this Sicha, the Rebbe explains the Mitzvah of the Chanukah lights, and concentrates on two of their features, that they are to be placed by the door of one’s house that is adjacent to the street, or the public domain, and that they must be placed on the left-hand side of the door. These features have a deep symbolism: The “left-hand side” and the “public domain” both stand for the realm of the profane, and by placing the lights there, we are, as it were, bringing the Divine light into the area of existence which is normally most resistant to it. The Sicha goes on to explain the difference between the positive and negative commandments in their effect on the world, and concludes with a comparison between the Chanukah lights and tefillin.