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VAETCHANAN 5782
Bind Yourself to Gd with Your Tefillin, It Can Save Your Life
If I were to ask you to name the one mitzvah most Jews do not observe, what would you say? I would say it is the mitzvah of tefillin. How many Jews today put on tefillin every day—except Shabbat of course when we don’t wear it? How many Jews really know what tefillin is? It’s translated as phylacteries. What is that? It’s a word I never heard of. In today’s Torah portion we have the Shema and V’ahavta passage that Jews recite twice a day. In it we find the following commandment—not a suggestion but a commandment: Uk’shartam l’ot al yadecha, v’hayu l’totafot beyn eynecha (And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand and they shall be tefillin between your eyes).
The pronoun “them” refers to a previous verse, “And these words which I command you.” And so, the black boxes of the tefillin contain scrolls of 4 Torah passages about the commandment of tefillin. They also teach about the Oneness of Gd, the acceptance of His commandments and how Gd saves and protects His people as He did in Egypt—and as He did last weekend when about 1,000 rockets rained upon Israel and not one Israeli died!
Tradition suggests the mitzvah of tefillin is as important as all rest of the 612 commandments combined! Tefillin are identified in this verse as an ot (a sign). It is one of the special signs that identify a Jew, such as circumcision, tzitzit and mezuzah. When one binds the leather boxes of the tefillin on one’s arm or head with the leather straps tied to it, one is effectively binding oneself—one’s head and one’s arm—to Gd.
Tefillin are also a zikaron (a reminder)—a daily reminder that we were given this mitzvah as we left Egypt teaching us that we are each an Image of Gd, and we should not be slaves. It’s a reminder of the evil within as personified in the slavery in Egypt and of our Gd-given potential for goodness and holiness in our Divine Image as personified in the holy scrolls from the Torah in the tefillin boxes.
Think abot it. Everyone has signs and reminders. Walk into a home or office and you’ll see pictures on the walls and on the desk of dear ones reminding one of his/her love and responsibilities towards them. One may have a picture of one’s heroes on the wall that is a reminder of someone whom is admired for what that person stood. These serve 2 purposes: to tell everyone what we stand for and to remind ourselves as well.
Now we don’t wear tefillin on Shabbat and Yom Tov, because the light of the holy day—when observed—is sufficiently illuminating and we don’t need the extra boost that tefillin gives us. And women do not have to wear tefillin (although there have been famous women like Michal and Rashi’s daughters who have) because their bodies are a constant reminder of their inherent unity with Gd—in being able to co-create another human being with Him. A woman’s body is her tefillin!
I once shared with you a fascinating story about Dr. Steven Schram, a PhD in chemistry, a chiropractor and acupuncturist. Schram had not worn tefilin since his Bar Mitzvah until a friend urged him to try. He went to his rabbi for a refresher course. (If any of you want help with your tefillin, just let me know.) For a while he would put them on in the morning, sit on his adjustment table, recite the Shema and meditate. One morning he had an “aha” moment and wrote an article called: “Tefillin: An Ancient Acupuncture Point Prescription for Mental Clarity” (Journal of Chinese Medicine # 70 10/02, p.5).
In it Schram points out that when worn properly the leather straps and boxes of the tefillin stimulate acupuncture points associated with improved concentration and inspiration. For example, the straps hit the point called “Heart 7” under the pinkie on the side of the wrist—a point used in Chinese medicine to treat every psychiatric disorder. The spot on the nape of the neck, where the knot of the head tefillin hits, corresponds to acupuncture point “du-16” which “directly stimulates and nourishes the brain.”
Kabbalah, as you would expect, takes it even further as it tells us that one who wears tefillin is “enveloped by the supernal mind, and the Divine Presence does not depart from him.” Imagine going through your day, every day filled with the Presence of Gd. As Aryeh Kaplan wrote in his book, Tefillin: “When a man wears tefilin and also contemplates their significance, his very thoughts are elevated close to Gd…But even the physical act in itself can bring man to the loftiest heights.
Next week it’ll be 2 years since my heart attack. My stay at Emory Hospital brought up all sorts of new questions of Jewish law that I never thought of before—like how to gently ask the nurse how can you sleep in the room on Shabbos with the lights on because you can’t turn them off yourself? Or how do you wind your tefillin in the morning over the IV on the back of you left hand? And as I was winding the tefillin I couldn’t help but think of the old story of the man who was putting on his tefillin in the hospital when one nurse ask the other. “What do you think he’s doing?
The other nurse replied, “You know these Jews. They’re so careful. I bet he’s taking his own blood pressure!”
Yes, it’s no joke, tefillin can be good for your health—and as you’ll see—can also save your life. A study by the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine (American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology) found that regular users of tefillin may receive health benefits through remote ischemic preconditioning—that is, briefly restricting blood flow and oxygen to the heart and then restoring it. In other words, by the way tefillin is wrapped and unwrapped. Dr. Jack Rubenstein said, “We found people who wear tefilin…recorded a measurable positive effect on their blood flow that has been associated with better outcomes in heart disease.” Israeli studies have shown that Orthodox men who wear tefillin, have a lower risk of dying of heart disease.
That was how tefillin can be good for your health. Now let me share with you how tefillin can save lives. Zeev Breier, in his book, Even In The Darkest Moments, tells the story of David Miller, an observant Jew, who was at Logan Airport getting ready to board United Flight #175. Let me read you some of it:
Miller was going to LA on an important business trip and had to make this flight. A lot depended on it.
He boarded the plane and sat down as the doors closed. Suddenly he remembered that he had left his tefillin in the terminal boarding area. He politely asked the stewardess if he could go back and retrieve them just a few feet from the gate.
She told him that once the doors closed, no one was allowed off the plane. He asked to speak to the pilot to obtain special permission, but the pilot simply restated the policy.
David was not about to lose this precious mitzvah, or let the holy tefilin get lost, so, not knowing what else to do, he started screaming at the top of his lungs, “I am going to lose my tefillin!”
The crew asked him to be quiet, but he refused. He made such a tumult that the flight crew told him that they would let him off the plane, but even though it would only take 90 seconds, they were not going to wait for him.
No matter. David was not about to lose his tefillin, even if it caused him great inconvenience or cost his business a loss. He left the plane, never to re-board.
That was United flight #175, the 2nd plane to crash into the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001!
Tefillin saved David’s life. But let me tell you the rest of the story—how his tefillin saved thousands of lives. Originally, the terrorists wanted to strike both of the Twin Towers simultaneously to maximize the explosive carnage. Later it was learned that due to David’s intransigence, the takeoff was delayed, causing a space of 18 minutes between the striking of the 2 towers.
This delay made it possible for thousands of people to escape alive from both buildings. All because one Jew would not forsake his beloved tefilin!
When one dons tefillin, it is prefaced with the prayer, L’sheym yichud Kudsha B’rich Hu uSh’chintey, bidchilu urchimu, “For the sake of unification of the Holy One, Blessed it He, and His Shechina, in awe and love.” In other words, the tefillin can unify you with Hashem and fill you with His Shechina, His Presence. One literally feels his soul elevated from this mitzvah.
We conclude the donning of the tefillin with the words of the prophet Hosea (2:21-22): V’eyrastich li l’olam, I will betroth you to Me forever. I will betroth you with righteousness, with justice, kindness and mercy. I will betroth you to Me with faithfulness, and you shall know Hashem!” When you put on tefillin, you get as close to Gd as if He was betrothed to you.
So, my friends, why put on tefillin every day? So that you remember every day who you are and what you are. You are a Jew and an Image of Gd. So put on your tefillin every day. What a great way to start your day. Amen!
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