A number of years ago, shortly after 9/11, Sarah and I travelled to Iowa. On our way home, as we were going through security, I got called over for additional screening. I saw the TSA officer going through my carry on bag. He pulled out my Tefilin bag and was trying to figure out what was in there. He seemed like a really nice guy but he definitely was not Jewish and I don’t think he ever saw Tefilin before. He said to me, “Sir, what is in this bag?” I was about to say, “Oh don’t worry that is just my Tefilin,” but I realized that he of course would not know the Hebrew word, Tefilin. So instead I said, “Oh those are my phylacteries.” That certainly settled it!
Who came up with the word, “Phylactery” as a translation for Tefilin? A “Phylactery” sounds like something you take when you are constipated!
At any rate, the officer says to me, “What is a phylactery?”
I say, “well you see, it comes from Deuteronomy when G-d commands us to write sections of Bible and put them in these black boxes.”
“What do you do with them,” he asked. I told him that I put them on my arm and head.
The officer then looked at me and with 100% sincerity said, “Now I am believer just like you. I am a Christian. But why would the Lord want you to put those things on your head?”
I was stumped! I didn't have a good answer for him then, and I have been looking for one ever since. Tonight, I would like to share an answer with you and relate it to the Seder and Pesach.
I will begin with two important tefilin images from the 20th century. The first was in the beginning of the 20th century. As Eastern European Jews came over from Russia and Poland and saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time, many Jews did something very tragic. Many threw their tefilin overboard into the Atlantic Ocean. Their conception of Liberty was throwing off the tefilin. They wanted to be frei, or free from the shackles of Torah and Mitzvot.
The second image takes us to the days leading up to the 1967, six day war. Troops from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia advanced to Israel’s border. Israel was being strangled. The low death toll estimates for Israel were over 10,000. Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren was preparing the country’s public parks to be cemeteries. About a week before the war on Lag Ba’omer, the Lubavitcher Rebbe spoke to thousands of youth. He announced the first of the 10 mitzvah campaigns. Jews all over the world, including the troops in Israel, should put on Tefilin, and he said, “This will be a merit for victory.” Israel was of course victorious and the tefilin campaign resulted in over 400,000 men putting on tefilin at least once.
I think about these two moments in Jewish history. In the beginning of the 20th century, Jews who had been religous, who wore tefilin their entire lives, were throwing off their tefilin. In 1967, Jews who had been secular, who never wore tefilin or had not put them on since their Bar Mitzvah, were now putting them back on. We are still part of this movement of Jews around the world becoming more and more connected to our beautiful mitzvot.
So this is all nice but what does it have to do with Pesach?
In order to understand the connection between Pesach and Tefilin we actually have to look inside the Tefilin. The Tefilin have 4 Torah sections. The arm Tefilin (shel Yad) have the 4 sections on one rolled up piece of parchment. The head tefilin (shel rosh) have the same 4 sections on 4 different pieces of parchment.
But what sections of Torah are actually in the Tefilin? Most people, if asked, would probably say the “shema.” This is correct. The 3’rd and 4’th sections are the first two paragraphs of the shema. But what are first two Torah passages in the Tefilin? The answer is they are passages from Chapter 13 of the Book of Exodus. They are all about the Seder! Included in the Tefillin are the following verses:
- “Remember that you were in Egypt”- source for commandment to discuss Exodus on Seder night
- “Eat Matzah”
- Don't eat Chometz”
- The answer to the Wicked Son and the One who doesnt know how to ask.
- The question and answer to the Simple Son.
- The requirement to teach your children on seder night.
- The obligation to see ourselves as having gone forth from Egypt.
Did you know that all of that is in your Tefilin?!?!
It is all in there!
So now I have a new way of understanding the essence of the Tefilin. We all have a beautiful seder. We teach our children and grandchildren our deepest values and beliefs. We show them why we are Jewish and why we hope they will carry on our traditions. But then, we leave the seder and pesach and what then. Are these ideas only discussed one or two nights a year? Well the idea of the Tefilin is to literally capture the magic of the seder and put it in little black boxes. We then put them on every morning on our head (as we dedicate our thoughts, hopes and dreams) and on our arm (as we dedicate our actions) to the values of the Seder. The seder is too amazing to be limited to Pesach! The tefilin enable us to take the seder with us each and every day and make our life all about those values!
I have asked a number of people, “what are the biggest hurdles in wearing Tefilin?” The two answers I get are:
- It takes too long. I don't have enough time in the morning.
- I don’t know how to put them on.
The answer to hurdle #1 is that while it is nice to pray shacharit with tefilin on (and this does take time), we should remember that the mitzvot of Tefilin and Prayer are independent of each other. Even if you have 2 minutes, put on tefilin, make the blessings, close your eyes and make a commitment to take the magic of the seder (and the shema) into your day. It will only take 2 minutes.
The answer to hurdle #2 is that I don’t know any rabbi or friend who wouldn’t love to help. Please set up a meeting with me (or with your rabbi, if you go to another shul) and learn the how to and meaning of the tefilin. It will change your life and your family.
So here is the takeaway. The seder will be here in less than two weeks. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare. Take the Haggadah with you wherever you go; on the train, to work etc. Make it your companion. Whenever you have an extra few minutes, go through it. Take notes. Try to think of the deepest values and ideas that you want to communicate to your children and grandchildren this Pesach. Why be Jewish? Why does the Exodus story matter to them. How can it elevate their lives? You would never show up to an important interview or business meeting unprepared, so how can you show up to the most important Jewish family moment of the year unprepared.
Then after Pesach, after you have had the holiest and deepest seder experience, bottle it up in your tefilin and take it with you each and every day for the rest of the year until your tefilin will be recharged with next year’s Seder Magic.
Now I want to tell you why I really spoke about this topic tonight. Sure, I am interested in the Tefilin Passages and its connection to Pesach but I really spoke about this because it is deeply personal.
In 1973, during the Yom Kippur war, the Lubavitcher Rebbe intensified the Tefilin Campain. A Jewish man who was in his thirties (married with two children), who had not put on tefilin since his bar mitzvah, heard the Rebbe on the radio. The Rebbe requested that all Jewish men put on Tefilin to bring a merit to the Israeli soldiers. This man decided to go the shul and put on Tefilin. He then did a second time and a third and before the end of the year, this man and his family were 100% religious. That man is my father.
Now I mentioned that before wearing Tefilin, my parents had two children. Well I am child #4 of 6! After my parents became religious, they had another 4 children! I literally only exist because of Tefilin! One of my favorite pictures is my father sitting next to me wearing his Tefilin holding my son at his bris. The three generations. We only exist because of the Gift of Tefilin. Please give your family the gift of Tefilin. Please take the magic that you will create at the Seder this year, bottle it up and make it part of your daily practice every morning.
Wishing everyone a Chag Kasher V’sameach!
Rabbi Antine
