How to Put on Tfillin

Shlomo Yaffe: Subsequent to putting on the tallit, we put on that to fill in, amongst - Jews and German Jews a tallit worn from Bar Mitsvah from the time they begin to put on – also among that other ashkenazic jews, the tallit is only worn from the wedding so a young man who is not yet married would put on to Tefillin without tallit. There are two Tefillin, one is called the shalia that goes on the hand, the other is called the shelrush, it goes on the head and it looks like this. They both have four portions of the torah written in them but the shelyad has one scroll and on bar to chamber. These are made of leather by the way. She Shelrush has four small scrolls in four chambers as you can see these four chambers. It has the shin which is first letter of one of god’s names on each embossed on each side of the head’s Tefillin. The idea of putting on this Tefillin is that we bind our hearts which the head Tefillin is more an opposite as you shall see. Our minds and our action is symbolized by the arm to the will of Hasheb, to god’s will. We recognize that there is something greater than out mind, more important than our feelings and more powerful than out strength. We begin by placing the hand Tefillin, the Tefillin are placed on one’s weaker hand. So if you are rightie you place them on your left hand. If you are a leftie, then the Tefillin are placed on the right hand and everything is done, mirror image to what you have seen. There are many minor variations in the way the Tefillin are put on and wrapped but the Mitsvah are the same. Let us begin by rolling up the left sleeve. Begin by taking the end Tefillin there placed upon the bicep with the height of the bicep, the part that comes up when you make a muscle leaning towards the heart. They are placed in the middle of the bicep which puts them opposite the heart. (Jewish).

The Ben Yamin is putting on the Tefillin according to the – tradition in which a sheen is created on the upper arm. There are other ways of doing this. This is the way we are doing it today. Along the forearm one makes seven circles, each one separate from the others so you can see skin in between each of the wrappings of the strap of the Tefillin. Now we wrap it around the palm of the hand and move on to the head Tefillin. The wrapping of the Tefillin around the fingers is completed after we put on the Tefillin of the head. Ashkenazi Jews recite a second blessing which begins exactly the same as the other one Al mitzvah – Jews do not recite the second blessing unless they inadvertently interrupted themselves during between the head and hand Tefillin. Now the verses from this are going to be recited by Ben Yamin.

Ben Yamin: (Jewish)

Shlomo Yaffe: What he did was he wrapped each rings around his finger. He recited a verse which talks about how Hashem attracts the Jewish people to himself and this involved a wedding ring of our covenant with God. Since the theme of this is five minutes. I want to make it sure that you understand that to do the Mitzvah, you need to put on the Tefillin and recite the first parts of Shema, the first section of the Shema and that is all what needs to do and it is a very great Mitzvah that utterly transforms your day if you do it. So please don’t think you have to do the whole prayer. You can do this all well under five minutes and go into the day with the strength of Hashem’s wisdom and love behind you.


Transcription by: Scribe4you Transcription Services