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A man's arm wearing Tefillin by the Kotel with his sleeve rolled up

The Power of Tefillin – Post 1

The Power of Tefillin – Post 1

Friedman, Rabbi Manis
May 30, 2021

“[Tefillin is] a mitzvah written in the Torah and repeated a number of times wherein the Torah itself all it says is that you should bind these words as a sign on your arm and as frontlets between your eyes… It doesn’t tell you how to make them,… which words should be written,… where on your arm, where between your eyes… All the details are part of the Oral Torah.

 

Moshe was given all this information but was not told to write it down, so for many many years, it was transmitted orally from teacher to student and preserved very meticulously so that 3300 years later we [still] know how to make tefillin. There is no confusion, there are no differences of opinion – this is how you make tefillin.

 

In the writing of the scroll, there are over 1000 instructions. The scribe has to be aware of all of them… so many details, and yet they are all preserved… The same laws, the same rules, the same product 3300 later. That is something of a miracle.”