KKSY Tefillin

When pictures show members of KKSY at morning prayers, you can see a small black box wound around a congregant’s arm and another placed near the front of the head. What are these boxes and why do Orthodox—and many Conservative—Jewish men wear them during morning weekday prayers?

The boxes are called tefillin after the Hebrew word “tefilla” or prayer. The Torah commands Jews to wear them to remember the commandments each person must observe during the day. Jewish boys generally get their first tefillin shortly before they become bar mitzvah at age 13. Once they have passed their thirteenth birthday, each morning at shaharit prayers they wrap the straps of one box seven times around the weaker arm. (This prescription means a right handed person wears the box on the left arm and a left handed person wraps it around the right arm.) The second box is wound around the front of the head. Inside the tefillin are four sentences from the Bible where Jews are commanded to wear this physical aid to remembering their obligations. As the congregant wraps the tefillin into place, he recites a blessing acknowledging that this act fulfills a Biblical commandment.

Many rules surround creating usable tefillin. Each box must be perfectly square. Only an educated observant scribe can write the four Biblical verses on the parchment in the box. No errors may occur in the writing.  

Tefillin are not worn on the Sabbath or major holidays such as Passover, Succot and Shabouth. On these days, Jews have many other customs that help to remember their obligations

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