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a sign upon your hand: According to the strictest pshat [intended meaning] it means that it should be a perpetual reminder like [the expression] to write something on your hand [we would say, tie a string around your finger], as it is written, in the Song of Songs: Set me as a seal upon your heart. [Song of Songs 8:6]
Rashbam (on Ex. 13:9)
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Together last week's parasha and this week's parasha contain the first two paragraphs of the Shma that stress that we are to love God (see last week) and follow God's commandments. How are we to remember this important idea? Verse 18 (Deut. chapter 11) provides the answer: "Impress these words upon your heart, bind them for a sign upon your hand...teach them to your children... and write them on your doorposts."
The Oral Torah identifies 'sign upon your hand' and 'symbol between your eyes' to refer to the mitzvah of Tefillin. The mitzvah of tefillin is mentioned four times in the Torah, once each in this week's and last week's parasha, and an additional two more times in Exodus (13:9 and 13:16), and it is these four passages that are inscribed on kosher parchment. The Aramaic word tefillin (related to the Hebrew word for prayer: tefilah), does not appear in the Torah, but is used by Onkelos to translate the biblical word, totafot. Totafot is often translated as 'frontlets,' and may be derived from women's ornaments (picture the jewellry of Yemenite or Indian brides with a decorative jewelled piece on their foreheads). The word totafot is also sometimes translated as 'phylacteries'; the word appears in the New Testament (Matthew 23:5), and means protective amulets (like the word prophylactic). Totafot appears only three times in the Torah, and its etymology is unclear as there are no words in the Torah with a related root. As Ibn Ezra says, "This word has no fellow". Rashi's unusual and unscientific etymology tries to relate the word to two obscure African languages to hint at the four partitions (in the tefillin worn on the head) that contain the four portions. (The tefillin worn on the hand contain the exact same four portions written on one long piece of parchment and are housed in a single black leather box called a 'bayit').
Both head and arm boxes have thin, black leather straps attached to them. Blessings are recited and straps are wound on your arm and fingers -- there are different traditions on how to do it. (This is one of the things easier to show someone than to write about. If you want to 'lay' tefillin and don't know how, contact us and we'll find someone to show you). Tefillin are worn during the regular morning service (not holidays or Shabbat). Although women are exempt from this positive, time-bound mitzvah, there is no prohibition against them wearing them. According to the Talmud, Michal bat Shaul (King David's wife) wore tefillin (Eruvin 96a). Rashi's daughters are also thought to have worn tefillin, but this may be an urban legend, as I have not found any reliable historical record that documents this.
Whether the problematic totafot is translated as 'symbol' or 'frontlets' is not only an academic issue; the larger question is whether 'a sign on our hand' is meant literally or not. According to Rashi, the word 'this' in the verse 'this shall be a sign upon your hand' (Ex. 13:9) refers not to tefillin but to the exodus from Egypt. The exodus is described as a sign upon our hand because God took us out of Egypt 'with a strong, outstretched arm.' Rashi's grandson, Shmuel ben Meir, (known by his initials, RaShBaM) goes further and makes the radical suggestion that the 'sign' talked about in Exodus is not referring to literally 'putting a sign on your hand' but should be understood figuratively like the verse "Set me as a seal upon your heart"; the lover in the Song of Songs is not suggesting a surgical cardiac procedure. While there is no official stand against tefillin, Rabbi Plaut suggests that the Reform position may be said to be, "an endorsement of Rashbam's point of view, that the biblical prescription was meant in a figurative way only." (pg. 473 in The Torah: A Modern Commentary, UAHC Press). Even though many committed, liberal Jews choose to wear a tallit and kippah, most liberal Jews have abandoned the practice of wearing tefillin; even among those who have the habit of morning prayer with Tallit, few don tefillin on a regular basis. The Reform movement continues to re-examine its relationship with tangible symbols and ritual but the final version of the latest official Reform platform, the Centenary Perspective, deleted the mention of 'tefillin' from an earlier draft that had listed once neglected rituals.
Ibn Ezra asks why we assume "You shall write them on the doorposts of your house" is meant literally, but "You shall bind them around your throat" (Prov. 3:3) is only meant figuratively!? (I'm sure glad Judaism didn't invent some sort of Jewish necktie to fulfill this latter 'commandment' literally.) His answer is that the book of Proverbs is just that: Proverbs. The language there is allegorical. But, he argues,
It is not written in the Torah that the Torah is only an allegory, heaven forfend, but should be understood only in its plain sense. Therefore we do not interpret something to replace its literal meaning, except when this contradicts common sense, like "to circumcise the foreskin of your heart" (Deut. 10:16). Ibn Ezra on Ex. 13:9
In other words, unless it is obviously metaphorical language, the Torah and its mitzvot need to be understood as they are stated, and not just as lofty ideas.
Lessons for Today
All mitzvot can be understood metaphorically: tefillin is a powerful symbol of 'tying oneself' to God, kashrut is caring about how you eat, and Shabbat is about not being a workaholic. The parallel mitzvot of Tefillin and Mezzuzah are mentioned together and are similar in many ways, yet most Jews have a mezzuzah (on at least one door in their home). There are many beautiful symbolic ideas represented by the mezzuzah, but few Jews suggest that the mitzvah of affixing a mezzuzah to one's door need only be understood metaphorically. In order for the mezzuzah to have symbolic meaning, it has to be physically attached to one's door. But while Torah and mitzvot can't only exist as intellectual and abstract concepts without concrete ritual, being too literal about doing mitzvot and not considering their symbolic power limit their meaning and can reduce the performance of mitzvot into a fetish.
"Bind them for a sign upon your hand." If we choose to not put on tefillin and interpret this instead to mean that we should always remember to do the mitzvot, we must answer the question, how will we?
Shabbat Shalom
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