Tefilin-I cannot start my day without them. Thanks to my summers at Camp Ramah, I have been starting my day with tefilin for over twenty years, and they help me to invite God into my life each and every day.
For those who are unfamiliar, tefilin are the small boxes containing verses from the Torah that are attached to our arm and head during shacharit, weekday morning prayer. To many they look strange, and seem very foreign at first- but beneath the surface the mitzvah of wearing tefilin is a powerful experience. When I wrap the tefilin around my arm each morning I am reminded that I am “bound” to the Jewish tradition. Judaism is to meant to be something that is “tied” to my identity. I am reminded of our deep historical roots as a people who went from slavery to freedom each time that I bind, and subsequently unwind, my tefilin. As I look at the box on my arm that is facing my heart, feel the box on my head, and look at the straps wound around my hand, I am reminded that being Jewish is something that requires my heart (feeling), my intellect (study), and my hands (action). As I wrap the tefilin around my hand saying the prescribed words from the prophet Hosea, I am asked to bring God’s presence into my life and reminded to create a mature relationship with God that, much like a marriage, is to be built on love. Perhaps most importantly, each and every day I am reminded of the potential to transform a seemingly “ordinary” day into something that is holy and “extraordinary.”
That is why this week, these two articles on women wearing tefilin attracted my attention.
Tefillin for Women, by Women, Debra Nussbaum Cohen
Why Our Daughters Should Learn to Use Tefillin, Debra Nussbaum Cohen
As Conservative Egalitarian Jews, we have done a poor job inspiring women of all ages in our synagogues, day schools, youth groups, and summer camps, to wear tefilin. And for that matter, these days I notice fewer and fewer men wearing tefilin in morning minyan. I often wonder why this is the case. For women, is it that tefilin seem to “male? Is it the fact that many women who might consider wearing tefilin have very few role models who wear them? Is it that our educators have not done enough to explain the mechanics and the significance behind this powerful ritual? Or perhaps it is simply that people do not often make it to daily minyan and have therefore had little exposure to tefilin?
What do you think? Do you wear tefilin? Why or why not? I am looking forward to hearing from you!
**I will be on vacation next week, and will look forward to sending out my next Monday Morning Message on June 25th.