Second Temple Beth Shalom World Wide Wrap a Huge Success!

Several dozen people gathered at Temple Beth Shalom on February 1st, Super Bowl Sunday, for what has now become an annual tradition. Super Bowl Sunday is the date set annually by the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs for the World Wide Wrap, the effort to get as many people as possible to use Tefillin.

Beth Shalom’s 2009 participants studied the Torah texts about Tefillin, and were taken on a guided tour through the mentions of the phylacteries in the Biblical Books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. The obligation of tefillin is mentioned four times in the Torah. Twice when recalling the The Exodus from Egypt:

"And it shall be for a sign for you upon your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand did the LORD bring you out of Egypt" — Exodus 13:9

"And it shall be for a sign upon your hand, and as totafot between your eyes; for with a mighty hand did the LORD bring us forth out of Egypt" — Exodus 13:16

— and twice in the shema passages:

"And you shall bind them as a sign upon your arm, and they shall be as totafot between your eyes" — Deuteronomy 6:8

"You shall put these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall tie them for a sign upon your arm, and they shall be as totafot between your eyes" — Deuteronomy 11:18

The word tefillin is obviously related to the Hebrew word "tefillah", meaning prayer and is its plural form. In the Torah tefillin are called totafot. This word is difficult to translate or understand.

The term "tefillin" is found in Talmudic literature, although the Biblical word totafot was still current, being used with the meaning of "frontlet". In rabbinic literature the expression is not found translated into a foreign word.

The Septuagint renders "totafot" as ἀσαλευτόν meaning "something immovable". A reference in the English translation New Testament calls tefillin "phylacteries", from the Greek "phulakt rion" meaning "guard's post" or "safeguard" from phulakt r, guard, from phulax, phulak. However, neither do Aquila and Symmachus use the word "phylacteries".

Targum Onkelos and the Peshitta translate the word "totafot" as tefillin. The Tur writes that the word "tefillin" is derived from the word "pelilah" meaning evidence, because tefillin act as a sign and proof that the Shechinah rests upon the Jewish people.

Excavation of Qumran in the Judean Desert in 1955 indicated widespread use of tefillin during the Second Temple period. The dig revealed the earliest remains of tefillin, both the leather containers and scrolls of parchment, dating from the 1st century. Some of the scrolls found deviate from the traditional passages prescribed by the sages. This led scholars to believe that some of the sets were used by a non-Pharisee sect. Temple Beth Shalom participants in the World Wide Wrap had an opportunity to view photographs of the tefillin found with the Dead Seas Scrolls in Qumran.

Tefillin resembled amulets in their earliest form, strips of parchment in a leather case. Tefillin and "ḳeme'ot" (amulets) are occasionally mentioned side by side in the Mishna (Shab. vi. 2; Miḳ. vi. 4; Kelim xxiii. 9; et al.), and were liable to be mistaken one for the other ('Er. x. 1 et al.) King Saul appearing in battle, with a crown on his head and wearing bracelets, is connected with this idea. Proverbs reflects popular conceptions, that they originated in great part with the people, or were addressed to them. Prov. i. 9, iii. 3, vi. 21, and vii. 3 (comp. Jeremiah xvii. 1, xxxi. 32-33) clearly indicate the custom of wearing some object, with or without inscription, around the neck or near the heart; the actual custom appears in the figure of speech. In view of these facts it may be assumed that the Biblical passages quoted (Ex. xiii. 9, 16, and Deut. vi. 8, xi. 18) must be interpreted not figuratively but literally (unlike the Karaite interpretation, mentioned later in this article). The Biblical commandment assumes that ṭoṭafot were at the time known and in use, but that thenceforth the words of the Torah were to serve as ṭoṭafot.

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Ancient Ritual Revived at Palm Coast Temple Beth Shalom

Four times in the Five Books of Moses, in Exodus, twice in the Book of Exodus and twice in the Book of Deuteronomy, the Children of Israel are commanded to bind the words of God “as a sign upon your arm, and they shall be a symbol between your eyes!” The ritual of binding and becoming tightly connected with God is also mentioned in the 23rd chapter of the Gospel According to Matthew.

In some quarters of Judaism, the ritual of binding oneself, each weekday morning, to the words of God through the use of Tefillin, sometimes called Phylacteries, is being lost as Jews assimilate into 21st century America. Tefillin, two black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with biblical verses the arm-tefillin, or shel yad, worn on the upper arm, while the head-tefillin, or shel rosh, is placed above the forehead, serve as a "sign" and "remembrance" that God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Participating in an international program organized by the world-wide Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs, Palm Coast’s Temple Beth Shalom Men’s Club led the Flagler congregation in a practice session to encourage adherence to this Biblically-ordained ritual. More than 50 men, women and children assembled in the synagogue’s sanctuary and practice the wrapping and binding, some using Tefillin handed down from parent to child over the course of more than a century.

After viewing an instructional and motivational film, mentors helped each and every participant don the ancient boxes, straps and scrolls that were worn for a 20 minute prayer service. The event was followed by a breakfast for all participants, some as young as 5 years old, others approaching their 90s. All agreed, that beginning one’s day on a note of spirituality and sanctity was akin to having breakfast with God! “It really has had a remarkably positive impact on me, on my behavior and my outlook,” said one participant. His wife added, “This has been a traditionally male-oriented ritual that we have now liberated and taken as our own. What a wonderful way to educate and set an example for our own daughters and granddaughters!”