Tefillin

—Legal View:

Phylactery-Bag.(In the British Museum.)

The laws governing the wearing of phylacteries were derived by the Rabbis from four Biblical passages (Deuteronomy 6:8, 11:18; Exodus 13:9,16). While these passages were interpreted literally by most commentators (comp., however, Ibn Ezra and RaShbaM on Exodus 13:9), the Rabbis held that the general law only was expressed in the Bible, the application and elaboration of it being entirely matters of tradition and inference (Sanh. 88b). The earlier tannaim had to resort to fanciful interpretations of the texts in order to find Biblical support for the custom of inscribing the four selections in the phylacteries (Men. 34b; Zeb. 37b; Sanh. 4b; Rashi and Tos. ad loc.). There are more laws—ascribed to oral delivery by God to Moses—clustering about the institution of tefillin than about anyother institution of Judaism (Men. 35a; Yer. Meg. 1:9; Maimonides, in "Yad," Tefillin, 1:3, mentions ten; Rodkinssohn, in "Tefillah le-Mosheh," p. 20, ed. Presburg, 1883, mentions eighteen; comp. Weiss, "Dor," 1:74-75). Thus, even if most Jewish commentators are followed in their literal interpretations of the Biblical passages mentioned above, rabbinic interpretation and traditional usage must still be relied upon for the determination of the nature of the tefillin and the laws concerning them (see see Phylacteries—Historical, and Critical Views).

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