Laws of Tefillin, Mezuzah and Sefer Torah, Chapter 3 — The Making of Tefillin: Batim and Straps

Introduction to Chapter 3

Speaker 1: My teachers and rabbis, we are learning Laws of Tefillin, Mezuzah and Sefer Torah, Chapter 3. In today’s chapter we will learn how to make tefillin. Not the parshiyot (Torah passages), we already learned the parshiyot in the previous chapter. In today’s chapter we learn how to make the two other parts of the tefillin that must be made, which are the… well, what are they called? The batim (boxes) and the retzuot (straps).

Eight Laws in the Making of Tefillin

Speaker 1: The Rambam says as follows: “There are eight laws in the making of tefillin”. Wow, in Sefer Ahavah it is the Rambam’s custom, he likes to state in advance the number of laws.

So, we must remember that earlier, in Chapter 1, we learned that there are ten halachot l’Moshe miSinai (laws given to Moses at Sinai) regarding tefillin, two of them in the writing of the parshiyot, and eight of them in the straps and in the batim. So when he says here eight, he actually means the eight that remain from the ten things.

In Chapter 1, Law 3 it stated “There are ten things regarding tefillin, and all of them are halacha l’Moshe miSinai. And these are they: eight of them are in the making of the tefillin”. The way one makes the tefillin. The first two were “in their writing, that they are written with ink, and that they are written on parchment”, this was stated in Chapter 1, Law 3. Two laws about the ink and the parchment. Now we will learn all these halachot l’Moshe miSinai.

Why Halacha L’Moshe MiSinai?

Speaker 1: Why does he need to state halacha l’Moshe miSinai? Because it’s not a good book. Now, halacha l’Moshe miSinai things, we have learned, things that are halacha l’Moshe miSinai, it seems, it doesn’t say in the Torah, “and you shall make four boxes” and I don’t know what. But we received from Moshe miSinai that this is how one makes tefillin.

Therefore All Are Indispensable — Halacha L’Moshe MiSinai Is Always Indispensable

Speaker 1: “And these are they: A. Therefore all are indispensable”. Ah, an important thing. Halacha l’Moshe miSinai, there is a principle that halacha l’Moshe miSinai is always indispensable.

Why? What is the secret of this? Because halacha l’Moshe miSinai always tells how one should perform the mitzvah. Essentially, but it could be that it’s not indispensable. It could be a halacha l’Moshe miSinai for l’chatchila (ideally), and b’dieved (after the fact) it’s not indispensable.

But the Rambam’s way of looking at halacha l’Moshe miSinai is that it’s there to explain how to perform the mitzvah. I agree, but that still doesn’t say that it’s indispensable. It seems that the Rambam has some principle. He brings that the Biur Halacha, there are places where… ah, the Rambam himself says I said.

Discussion: Question from Parchment — Is Halacha L’Moshe MiSinai Always Indispensable?

Speaker 2: Yes, but parchment is just simply halacha l’Moshe miSinai, the Rambam didn’t count it as one of the ten, actually. A halacha l’Moshe miSinai, yes, it says in Chapter 1, yes. Even if it’s parchment is halacha l’Moshe miSinai it’s still kosher. Halacha l’Moshe miSinai is that one writes Maaseh Bereishit on gevil, but on parchment it’s still kosher.

Speaker 1: No, because that’s not what the halacha l’Moshe miSinai is.

Speaker 2: Okay, it’s the same thing. Okay, I hear.

Speaker 1: So, it seems, he brings that there are Acharonim who investigate this investigation, that there is such a principle that halacha l’Moshe miSinai is always indispensable.

Seemingly you’re right, but one must think how. The question is, for example, when someone comes and adds some nice thing, that one should perform a certain mitzvah in such and such a way, and there is such a thing, and he doesn’t claim that this is what the Almighty said that the tefillin must be. Let’s say someone comes, I don’t remember now what the style is of the shin that is engraved. Let’s say such a thing, he doesn’t say it’s halacha l’Moshe miSinai, it could be such a type of hiddur (enhancement), just a type of hiddur, he says one should add some enhancement.

But if halacha l’Moshe miSinai is as the Rambam explains in the introduction, that this is the way we can know what totafot means at all, or what etrog means, I understand what you’re saying, I mean that you’re right, it makes more sense that it should be indispensable, because this is what the Almighty told us through testimony, Moshe Rabbeinu only needs to transmit with a… but even the testimony, only with the other things that are nice additions and matters, for example by prayer the Rambam explained to us, one adds this for the matter because one wants, it’s not halacha l’Moshe miSinai, this is not the form of prayer. One must say that all these things that he lists, this is what Moshe Rabbeinu received what totafot means.

I agree with you, but conversely, from what he brings in Biur Halacha there is no difficulty as you said, because one must know what is exactly included in the definition that it must be so. As we will see here, it must be black, but not the other thing must be black. It doesn’t mean that halacha l’Moshe miSinai means that every detail must be so. And if it’s good in this way one is invalid. Therefore one doesn’t see so often, because either in Laws of Talmud Torah… Laws of Talmud Torah? It doesn’t say in Laws of Talmud Torah how one should learn a certain way. Okay, I hear what you’re saying.

Discussion: Halacha L’Moshe MiSinai Is Like a Technical Manual

Speaker 2: A thing that is like a technical manual, all these things that are stated here in the Torah, exactly as you say, it seems so.

Speaker 1: Right, and on the contrary, when it says in the Torah it’s actually really good. But it doesn’t mean just “here are golden ideas”, he means make it in this manner, make a certain vessel. A vessel must have many details. The Torah says here very many details that one should put an order on the garments. It goes further, but you put in fewer details than “its knobs and its flowers” of the menorah, because it’s a connection that doesn’t need to describe the building of something from learning, he needs to tell me how to look. He says it as it looks, “its knobs and its flowers”.

I understand what you’re saying, but okay. But one can still ask from where does the Rambam know that it’s indispensable?

Speaker 2: Why would you ask? It seems from where, because it says in the very language in the Mishnah, he didn’t understand at all that what it says means that it’s indispensable. That’s how it seems.

Discussion: Do Mitzvot Need to Have a Reason?

Speaker 1: “And these are they, and these are the last eight halacha l’Moshe miSinai.” It’s certainly against the ten sefirot.

Seemingly, for example, the Rambam who believes that the mitzvot must have a reason, he doesn’t need to explain, for example, why must the tefillin be box-shaped? Exactly why not? Or does every thing need to have a reason? I don’t know. This is seemingly a part of the details that need to have a reason. I don’t remember if there is a reason for this. He brings that the Israelites like to bring, I don’t know if there is a reason somewhere. I don’t know if there is a reason for these things. I don’t know.

Seemingly, I would say that the reason for all these things is because of beauty, because of… It’s very hard to argue about this, because beauty is a certain appearance. On the contrary, it’s an agreement. You made a different appearance.

I also had the thought of “its knobs and its flowers”, why don’t you ask questions? But there it says like “Moshe was perplexed”, and the Almighty showed him. Tefillin is also not in that manner, because the Almighty showed. It doesn’t say in the Torah. It’s very different. I say, one cannot establish that just as there is a way how one builds a menorah, there is a way how one makes tefillin. Yes? Perhaps yes? There too the Torah is not particular about all details.

Discussion: Can One Make Tefillin from Other Materials?

Speaker 2: He didn’t say, the Rambam says, he says from which type of leather one can make the boxes of the tefillin, the batim. I just want to say, yes. Also in the making of the Mishkan not one hundred percent everything is indispensable. One must know there the halacha. For example, the Hasmoneans made a menorah from spears. B’dieved, one doesn’t make the essence on Torat HaBehemah. It’s a mitzvah, it’s a halacha l’Moshe miSinai, it’s a mitzvah, it’s a verse. But it could be that one will have tefillin also… these are all types which is the essence, that one won’t have any leather.

Speaker 1: Are you now going to say that what? That the Jewish people can come to a people in a type of situation where there is no leather? That Judaism is wandered in leather? There are no pure hides? Let’s say, for what reason. One will pass laws there that one may not have to carry leather. And seemingly one won’t have a bunch of other types of materials. The halacha l’Moshe miSinai lays it down very clearly that this is it forever and ever.

Speaker 2: Could be, again, there is always the difficulty of “it is time to act for Hashem”, which the Rambam says about “it is time to act for Hashem”, that then there must be a Beit Din that should decide what one should do in the situation.

Speaker 1: No, I say, it could be like the Hasmoneans made from spears. I say that all mitzvot there is the essence. This is actually halacha l’Moshe miSinai. But let’s say a mitzvah, there is no more leather. For what reason, one forgot how one makes leather. One makes… there is no more leather. There are no more tefillin? There isn’t?

Speaker 2: No. Very possible that the sages of the generation will make some other manner that one should have the parshiyot. I have in mind, this would be very similar to the spears. Remember that the essential word here is that it should be an amulet that should have the four parshiyot on the head. The halacha l’Moshe miSinai is conditions that it should be nice and good and practical. And this the sages held is the best most practical way of having a good amulet on the head.

Speaker 1: I’m not completely in disagreement with you, but this is already more a question. I hear, but I’m not completely in disagreement, because now you’re going into a question like the Beit Din must decide. As the Rambam said, for example, I brought the responsum of the Rambam earlier, that today the Rambam holds that we don’t have the correct parchment, let’s say, and essentially according to the law it should be invalid halacha l’Moshe miSinai, because that halacha l’Moshe miSinai. But today we don’t have it. Says the Rambam, what should one do, not read the Torah? “It is time to act for Hashem”. So says the Rambam. This is a thing that exists. Let’s say there is a question, there is no parchment, and the sages will say, “it is time to act for Hashem”, one will need to do. “It is time to act for Hashem”.

But the “it is time to act for Hashem” will make sense. It won’t be like for example, there is no food, someone will go say let’s start eating stones as “it is time to act for Hashem”. There is actually a halacha l’Moshe miSinai that it should be a little box or that it should be black, it’s not random, it’s all with a certain thought. Seemingly, that it should be nice, or that it should be practical, that it should be something that people can put on their head and remember the Almighty. The halacha l’Moshe miSinai says yes clearly how it should be, but it’s still conditions in the basic framework.

Speaker 2: I agree, but as there too, as the Sefer Torah. It makes sense what Rabbeinu Yonah says, that if you don’t have kosher parchment you should make a blessing on invalid parchment, because it’s better than not having tefillin at all. It’s simple things, it’s not…

Digression: Praying Without Kavana — Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner

Speaker 1: I saw that Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner says, that praying without kavana (intention), he doesn’t hold like you who say that kavana means only knowing that one is praying, rather he goes with the assumption that kavana means actual kavana. He says that when one prays without kavana, it’s such a type of law as he says a law, like the Gemara has a hava amina (initial assumption) that one should give to children four species that are not kosher so that the law of etrog should not be forgotten from them, yes, Frisch, do you remember that there is a Gemara in Sukkah? The Gemara says that one should not do it, but there is an approach. Could be that they enacted that one should pray a prayer that has actually no meaning, so that the law of prayer should not be forgotten.

I fear that this causes more forgetting of the law of prayer, because if prayer means kavana, the more one says that one should pray without kavana… Okay, let’s not speak mockingly of Yosef further, okay.

Law 1 — Square Batim, Their Sewing in a Square, Their Diagonal in a Square

Speaker 1: And these are they: these are the eight laws. Batim meru’ba’im, the batim should be square, four-cornered. Here, tefiratam b’ribu’a, the tefillin are sewn around, and the sewing should be a square sewing, it shouldn’t be random, the scribe shouldn’t be able to pull whichever way he wants, it should be sewn in a square. V’alkhsonam b’ribu’a, also the place where the tefillin is…

Speaker 2: Read, read, I’ll let you translate.

Speaker 1: V’alkhsonam b’ribu’a, ad sheyimale arba zeviyotav. V’alkhsonam b’ribu’a means basically to say that when I tell you that it should be square, you could have made it, as Mishnah Berurah makes an explanation here, you could have made it like this, or you could have made it a rectangle.

Law 3 (Continued) — The Eight Halachot L’Moshe MiSinai

Speaker 1: Yes, Frisch, do you remember the Gemara in Sukkah? The Gemara says that one should not do it. Anyway, yes, but there is a law. Could be that they decreed that one should pray a prayer that should actually not be any Mishnah. I fear that this causes more forgetting in Torah and prayer, because if prayer means kavana, the more one says that one allows without kavana.

Okay, let’s not speak again about Yosef prayer.

The Eight Halachot L’Moshe MiSinai

Okay, and these are they, here are the eight laws. The batim should be square.

“Tefiratam b’ribu’a” — the tefillin are sewn around, and the sewing should be a square sewing, it shouldn’t be random, the scribe shouldn’t be able to sew together whichever way he wants. It should be sewn in a square.

“V’alkhsonam b’ribu’a ad sheyihyu lahem arba zaviyot shavot” — “alkhsonam b’ribu’a” means a distinction to say that when I tell you that it must be square, you could have made, for example he makes a picture here, you could have made it like this… you could have made a rectangle. A rectangle has square in the corners, it’s not crooked. But this is there… “alkhsonam b’ribu’a” means a distinction. How do I say that a thing should be square? In other words, it should be four equal sides. I tell you so, it should have the diagonal of a square. The diagonal of a square is not square. Diagonal means how long it is from one corner to the other. The Gemara says, in short, there is a calculation how one calculates the diagonal of a square. It must be the diagonal of a square, which means to say that it should be a perfect square, not a rectangle that has four equal sides… that has four sides. Because square can mean four corners. Four corners a rectangle also has, or a diamond shape, or other shapes.

But it doesn’t have to be the whole box the aspect, that it may be higher than the width. There we will see, true, because only the square goes on the corners, as it means here the length on the width. The height is another thing. But the… it should be four equal corners. In short, it must be square. The Rambam doesn’t say that it must be pointed, yes, that it must be exactly to the millimeter, it can’t be any which shape it should be. Today’s generations make it that it should be exactly pointy. But the Rambam says that it should be square. If it’s a bit round is it a bit not square? True, but not about this does one speak in the law. True.

Another halacha l’Moshe miSinai, that the square is a square circle. Not square, square means make the tefillin, don’t make it a rectangle, don’t make it a circle, make it a square. A square, alright.

The Further Halachot L’Moshe MiSinai

Okay, and another thing, and another second thing is, that is the square has like two things, the sewing and the square have three minimum halacha l’Moshe miSinai. A second thing is, that in the house of the head, where one has the shin, should come out a bit from the leather, like we have such a form of a shin.

A third halacha l’Moshe miSinai, that before one puts in the parshiyot into the batim, one puts it in such a little cloth.

Speaker 2: Yes, what is the matter of honor? Just. Or a practical reason, I don’t know.

Speaker 1: Ah, what did we learn that one never needs to check it. Because one makes it well.

Speaker 2: Ah, it protects it. Yes, yes, yes.

English Translation

Speaker 1: And not only that, on the cloth one places “and its hair wraps around the hair on the cloth”. One secures it well, then one ties it with a piece of hair. Not vacuum packed, with a hair, with a hair. One makes it tight, one makes it taut. Tight, however, is not the halacha. One makes it taut, like with a hair, that is a… hair doesn’t mean tight, hair means that one also adds the hair, one ties it with a hair. One ties it with a hair, so… but not about tight, I don’t know, I don’t see that he should make it tight.

That means, before one puts it in, that’s what he means to say, one makes the cloth and the hair before one puts it into the batim, not afterwards.

“Tofran b’gidin”, afterwards one sews the batim with sinews. The fifth halacha l’Moshe miSinai is the sewing. We learned that there is a sewing, the sewing is what sews together the batim so they should be closed, the sewing should be with sinews. You should sew with sinews. Not like hair which one uses on the cloth, one can also sew with hairs, but one must do it with sinews, with a stronger material. We will see what sinews is stronger, sinews on the material.

Let’s go further. What else does one do with the pieces of leather? Here we’re going to say how one does it practically. The sixth halacha of the eight halachos is that one makes a ma’avarta me’or hachipui, that means that in the back of the tefillin one makes a place, ma’avarta means a lashon over, a place where the straps should be able to pass through. One makes such a small tunnel, like a hole in the back of the shel rosh.

Speaker 2: Also is edshu yahden. Also is edshu yahden. Excuse me, and the beis is the retziyas can go through. A tunnel.

Speaker 1: The ovros vlachos b’soch tuvar shela. Tuvar means the place where the hole is made. He says tuvar, he translates, tuvar is a lashon of a fold of leather, a place where it folds onto itself. One takes the leathers and one presses it in a way that the place should be formed. Such a lubir is over more your leathers on tefillin and he knows how it looks. We don’t need to have difficulty. We can imagine it, but we know what it means.

Speaker 2: Yes, a tuva is the… the… the hole where the black strap goes in…

Speaker 1: Another seventh halacha, the strap should be black, and the eighth halacha is… that the knot with which one ties the strap… the the the Rambam always writes the… yekshar is the, because the Rambam always is going to say that he’s not going to describe what the knot looks like, and one must look at the tradition.

Discussion: Is the Rambam a Practical Guide

Now the Rambam is going to say, he has now laid out the halacha, that now he’s going to give details of… he’s going to say how one makes it. It’s going to be interesting, I think the question is why. You might think exactly what I’m saying. He doesn’t want any part of recipes. If it looks like it was why him writing earthly things that can fall into the details it’s details. I believe it can’t fall when it’s a matter of tradition, the point is, I imagine he wants to describe what makes tefillin, in order to tell you what means parshiyos and which sewing? What are we talking about? When who to you? Who are we talking about? Because he doesn’t want to say here how to make leather.

Further, further he goes. The Rambam doesn’t want to say here, he’s not a guide, a practical guide. He gives a practical guide, because he wants in his sefer to say all the halachos. Part of the halachos is, what does a bayis mean? He didn’t explain properly, he said one makes four batim. What does that mean? How do the four batim look? The best way that I can imagine how he looks at the four batim is he tells, let me tell you how my family ordered it. Could be. But it’s also correct, I don’t know, I don’t like to think that the Rambam is a recipe book. I don’t know.

Speaker 2: What does a recipe book mean?

Speaker 1: It’s not a recipe book, he wants this as the best understanding. Instead of telling you, he could have just said the halacha is thus, he just says how the halacha is. But I don’t believe that the taking thick wood is me’akev.

Speaker 2: No, no, true, it’s not me’akev, but he’s telling you an eitza.

Speaker 1: So, he went to the sofer and he came home, let’s say, let’s make a din that the Rambam is good, he wants to help us. One can say so, he went to the sofer, he looked at the method how they make this, and he made sure it’s correct, certainly that it fits with all the gemaros, and with the eight halachos l’Moshe miSinai that I think he himself was mesader that the number and the list come out, and he tells you the whole thing, he says how the sofer makes this, and if he makes it this way, and he keeps us in the halacha that I said, it’s still not a question.

Speaker 2: No, but it seems I think the reason is because he gives you the background so it should make sense. Because if for example someone learns a gemara, it’s true that the Rambam has the idea of being complete, right? At least being a sefer that you can read from here, you look in the gemara, the gemara says tefira of tefillin such and such. What is a tefira? I don’t know what you’re talking about. The Rambam tells you, first of all you need to know how one makes it, you need to know everything precisely what we’re talking about.

Speaker 1: Okay. So the Rambam is here a chesed organization, he’s not going to help us with making the leather, he tells you from where the halacha is relevant. That means, the eight halachos are already relevant. That means, from when one takes the thick wood one already needs to know the halachos. He tells you everything that’s relevant so you should be able to make it according to his halachos.

Halacha 4 — How One Makes the Batim Practically

Lokachin etz meruba arko k’rochbo k’govho, one takes a piece of wood, a square wood that is as high, a box. The Rambam says, v’im govho yater al rochbo o pachot mimenu, if its height is more than its width or less, it’s also not a problem, because the main thing is that it should be boxy. We’re going to see we’re going to see we’re going to see particularly later in the halacha. Ela al arko she’yehe k’rochbo, it must be square because that’s the halacha. The tefillin itself can be, if one wants, it may be higher than it is wide. Merubos, one sees that the Rambam is limiting that this means merubos. Merubos doesn’t mean that it must be exactly a box. I mean not exactly a box, because there’s still the titora, the ma’avarta. Okay, yes.

And what does one do? Chofrin bo shlosha charitzim, one digs in this, in this box. The box one has, it’s a thing. Ah, chofrin bo, in the wood, in the box, one cuts out three, one makes three grooves kedei she’yehe zeh rosh v’zeh rosh. Yes, very simple. One makes three, when one makes three holes it becomes four, four, four, four, because the side one doesn’t need to cut. This is the simple creation that the Almighty made. Adam muzretz milmata, milmata, milmata. A simple thing. Now you basically have a piece of wood with four fingers sticking out, like basically, right? That’s how it is.

Then one takes, yes, lokachin or u’martivin oto bamayim. You’re right, the martivin oto is not me’akev, but this is the way how one makes the craft, how one does it. He didn’t say how one makes klaf, because everyone makes klaf. Klaf is not a halacha. It’s a Jewish, it’s not just a way that someone should need to have such a box, but it’s a halacha how one does it. And I think that’s what he wants to bring out. Okay.

U’martivin oto bamayim, one takes the leather and one makes it so it should be soft and wet, one can easily bend it on the wood. U’mechafin bo et ha’etz, one lays it around and around the wood. U’machnisin et ha’or bein kol charitz v’charitz, one also fills it in so the holes should become filled with the piece of klaf. U’mechamsin oto, what does mechamsin oto mean? One presses it in as much as one can, because it’s wet, therefore it’s soft, one can press it. Ad she’osin min ha’or dmus she’yesh la shlosha rashin, the shin. The shin, ah, something that looks like a shin, because the whole thing looks like a shin. Not the whole thing, he’s talking about the shin that’s made on the side. He says that now when he makes it wet, makes it wet, you must already also now begin to have the leather of the shin, and one of the compartments should take on a shin. Now what’s still…

Dmus Shin — Three Heads and Four Heads

Speaker 1: Dmus shin, ah, something that looks like a shin, because the whole thing looks like a shin.

Speaker 2: Not the whole thing, he’s talking about the shin that’s made on the side.

Speaker 1: So now when you make it wet, do you already also now see on the leather of the shin? One of the halachos is that one must have a shin. Now when it’s wet, do you make, can you make a shin?

Speaker 2: And the dmus shin she’yesh lo arba’a rashin mismol hamaniyach. There are two shins. The right side of the tefillin shel rosh has a dmus shin of three heads, and the left side has a dmus shin of four heads.

Speaker 1: Do you know the inyan of this?

Speaker 2: No.

Speaker 1: And it’s a beautiful thing, a beautiful shin, it’s al pi kabbala. I don’t know.

Rav Avraham Chaim’s Chiddush About Dmus Shin

Speaker 1: I was once at a shiur of Rav Avraham Chaim at a bar mitzvah of Rav Yaakov Schwartz, he spoke, and he argued that he thinks that the shin, people think a shin is the letter shin. The Rambam however doesn’t say the letter shin, the Rambam says dmus shin. He says, he argued that it doesn’t have to be that it’s a remez to the letter shin. It could be, there are those who say it’s Sha-dai, here a shin, here a dalet, and a yud. But he argued that it doesn’t have to be that this is the pshat. It could be that it’s just a beautiful design, that it should be beautiful.

You don’t see that there’s a shin of four heads. A shin has three heads. The letter shin doesn’t come with three. But it’s a beautiful design that it should be…

Speaker 2: I heard that the dmus shin comes in here also because the whole bayis is like a dmus shin.

Speaker 1: No, that’s when one makes the charitzim, one makes a charitz of four, you’re talking about a shin of four, here specifically. There’s also three, because there are three charitzim. The three is against the three charitzim, and the four is against the four batim.

Speaker 2: Okay, no problem.

Speaker 1: The Rabbeinu Manoach says it comes out seven.

Speaker 2: No, I meant to say that you’re going to say Rav Yaakov Schwartz meant to say that it doesn’t have to be a clear shin, but that afterwards when one makes it back, it should be very clear the four batim.

Speaker 1: No, no, no, he’s talking about the essence of the shin. On the side there must be a shin. It says in the gemara, shin of tefillin halacha l’Moshe miSinai. There must be a shin. There’s no doubt that there must be a shin on the side of the bayis. The state doesn’t have to be a shin.

I’m saying, this is a shin, but the shin is not a random shin as a letter. The shin is the way how… and because of this it fits. No one has fallen the shin. The shin is twice the meaning when one makes a shin on the side. But one doesn’t do it on the side that divides, one does it on the smooth side.

Why Only on Tefillin Shel Rosh

Speaker 1: The reason why it’s made only on the shel rosh is because the shel rosh one sees, the shel yad one doesn’t see, so there’s no reason it should be beautiful.

Speaker 2: He brings toros. What is about beauty?

Speaker 1: Why not? Ah, a beauty. A shin. Shin is a beautiful writing.

Speaker 2: I would want to see your coat should be filled with shins.

Speaker 1: It’s a beautiful thing.

Speaker 2: How? Your coat has many shins, I mean.

Speaker 1: It’s a beautiful thing, a beautiful design.

Speaker 2: Yes. Why don’t you make on your coat a bunch of shins?

Speaker 1: I do yes.

Speaker 2: Ah, okay, you do okay, yes.

Speaker 1: I do yes. What’s the complaint? I make flowers, I know other things. It’s not so random. One made a shin, but actually it means just like a flower, perach is a flower. A shin looks like a flower, if you’ve ever noticed.

Speaker 2: Should one make a gimmel?

Speaker 1: Shins make more beautiful than gimmels.

Speaker 2: Which makes the sense that?

Speaker 1: It’s correct that this is Rav Kapel Schwartz. This is more connected to the tzuras hatefillin that it’s so. But it seems to me that this was before the shin, before it was mechadesh, because you look at the pictures too much.

Speaker 2: The pictures the Rambam made.

Speaker 1: The Rambam made the pictures in order to show. Because he wants to know how you should make by the wood. But before the Rambam they also used to make shins, this is before the pictures.

The Process of Making the Shin

Speaker 2: No, the end, when he holds in his hand the tefillin, he sees a shin before he closes it, it’s an open shin. And puts in from below each one.

Speaker 1: In the process of making it. There are four holes, that’s all.

Speaker 2: He sees a hide with four holes. Where is there a shin?

Speaker 1: It’s not, it’s one big hide with such four compartments. It’s not holes, on the contrary, it’s… technically it is.

Speaker 2: Technically it is, because it looks like what you can close.

Speaker 1: But you can also look at it like four pieces of hide that are connected with a back piece. You can look at it however you want.

Halacha L’Moshe MiSinai — What Does It Mean?

Speaker 1: In short, no one knows. Halacha l’Moshe miSinai means that one doesn’t know what it means.

Speaker 2: True.

Speaker 1: There’s such a… it’s an inyan like yes. If it’s a sevara it doesn’t need Moshe, let’s call it sevara yes. It’s not a beautiful way of making it, and it’s obvious that one doesn’t need to be a halacha l’Moshe miSinai.

Speaker 2: Okay, in short, ah, my video stopped. Let’s see what I can do.

How One Makes the Shin Practically

Speaker 1: On the wood one wraps around like… ah, what he does here the shin is yes certainly because it’s practical, because then one must make it because it’s wet. When it’s already hard one can’t make a shin.

Speaker 2: Right, and maniychin et ha’or al ha’etz, today one would yes be able to, because if the merchandise is very thick one can afterwards scrape out, cut out. But here, it’s today how one makes it thinner, yes, one makes it basically that it should cover the wood.

Speaker 1: Umm, could be.

Speaker 2: U’mechamsin ota, today one makes tefillin very hard, our tefillin come out in the end very strong.

Speaker 1: Right, I’m saying if it’s a rule for an old thinker, it wasn’t like today. I’m saying your grandfather, your grandfather had soft tefillin, it wasn’t hard like the tefillin you have now.

Speaker 2: Softer, but not so…

Speaker 1: Your older grandfather, ask him.

Speaker 2: Almost like iron.

Speaker 1: It was yes. The square barely held. It was made from the other side hide.

Speaker 2: Ahh.

Today’s Making of the Shin

Speaker 1: Umm, today actually they make the shin extra, if you ask the people. They don’t make it exactly like the Rambam says. But there’s no doubt that it’s not me’akev.

Speaker 2: Ah, they have a frame for the shin.

Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely. There are frames. They make it wet and they make it in.

Speaker 2: Why is it so perfect? It doesn’t look like you need it like a person.

Speaker 1: It’s not mechamsin ota. It doesn’t look like mechamsin ota. It looks like a tefira. They make… the Rambam says that one should make tefira the shin. Our shin we make yom tov’dik.

Speaker 2: Right, the Rambam’s shin would have come out much more sloppy. It wouldn’t have looked so perfect like a machine.

Speaker 1: Or yes, because if it’s a good artist he makes it beautiful.

Speaker 2: I don’t mean beautiful, I mean the perfection, the boxy, it looks so…

Speaker 1: Ah, he wouldn’t make exactly a shin of a sefer Torah with the taggin and with the entire garb.

Speaker 2: It’s a nice halachic shin, it’s always perfect, there’s no scratch in it.

Speaker 1: The Rambam doesn’t say that one must make exactly a halachic shin.

Speaker 2: No, one should make something that resembles a tzurat shin.

Speaker 1: From the wood that the nations have. He received it himself, he didn’t buy it from anyone.

Halacha 2 — Tefillin Shel Yad

Speaker 2: He says like this, “Venotel or shachor shel behema tehora, ve’oseh mimenu bayit echad meruba, vezeh hanikra bayit shel yad.” One takes a black leather from a kosher animal, one makes from it one square bayit, and this is called the bayit shel yad.

“Venotel or shachor acher, ve’oseh mimenu arba batim ketanim meruba’im, vezeh hanikra bayit shel rosh.” One takes another black leather, and one makes from it four small square batim, and this is called the bayit shel rosh.

“Umaniach bein kol bayit uvayit me’at min ha’or, kedei sheyihiyu nir’in arba batim.” One leaves between each bayit a little bit of leather, so that they should appear as four batim.

“Umechabran yachad, ad shena’asu bayit echad sheyesh bo arba batim.” One connects them together until it becomes one bayit with four batim inside.

“Umachnis parsha bechol bayit, umachazir miktzat ha’or milmata, vetofsro mikol arba penotav.” One inserts a parsha in each bayit, and one turns back a bit of the leather from below, and one sews it from all four sides.

“Umani’in min ha’or shelmata makom sheyuchnesu bo haretzu’ot, kemo te’ala.” One leaves from the leather from below a place where the retzu’ot should go in, like a tunnel.

“Vezeh hamakom nikra ma’abarta.” And this place is called ma’abarta.

Continuation: Tefillin Like Mezuzot

Speaker 2: The point is like this: How we make tefillin and mezuzot, tefillin looks the same thing as mezuzot, just the other way. We have a house, and by the door of the house one places a parsha. They build for the parsha a little house, this is a bayit. “Machnisin parsha bechol bayit” and one closes it, and by the door of it one places the retzu’a.

Speaker 1: Okay, anyway… and this is the tefillin shel rosh.

Speaker 2: And this is the center of the bayit. The parsha is the center of the bayit. By us there is a large bayit, and there is outside of it a small mezuza.

Speaker 1: I hear. There is no mezuza, there is a ma’abarta that you mean to say.

Speaker 2: What should I tell you? There are the same parshiyot, just this time it doesn’t hang outside.

Speaker 1: Ah, you’re saying that the parshiyot lies in the bayit. The parshiyot by us lies on the door of the bayit, here it lies in the center of the bayit. Opposite, the entire bayit is built for the parshiyot.

Speaker 2: Okay. And how does one make the tefillin shel yad?

Speaker 1: Do you have here the tefillin shel yad? The same thing, with one house, with the bayit.

Discussion: The Minimum Size of Tefillin

Speaker 2: What does the Rambam say the minimum size is? Because for the shel rosh he said a minimum size, that it must be large enough to make four small batim.

Speaker 1: Yes, but why doesn’t he say any size that is halacha, that it must be the size?

Speaker 2: No, he says there, once you need to make four holes, it can’t be tiny. You say that a skilled artist can make very small. He says there that it should be govah ke’etzba yeteira, should be smaller than a finger, even if you’re very skilled and you can compress it very small.

Speaker 1: Not clear. There are those who discuss this. There are those who hold that there is a shi’ur how large the tefillin must be. The Rambam doesn’t say that it’s me’akev certainly the kegovah etzba. Who perhaps has an argument that it must be by the shel yad? By the shel yad it must be this high, not higher? I don’t know why.

Speaker 2: What, it should be small? It shouldn’t be larger in height than a finger?

Speaker 1: Yes. If yes, let it be. He means that it’s a shi’ur, it’s not exactly me’akev, but it’s similar to how the Rambam says that the shel yad must fit into the elbow. Therefore it shouldn’t be too high. The shel rosh you can make as high as you want, it doesn’t matter to you. Who? There were those who did so.

Speaker 2: I thought that it’s more a practical thing. That here he tells you that on tefillin shel yad, everyone is going to try to make it small. If we look at it as it’s simply a pouch in which one can place an amulet, when someone goes to ask from an amulet-maker, he’ll tell him, “Give me the most practical one, that shouldn’t be too thick.” Everyone is going to make a small one. So by the shel rosh you must have enough space to insert four small parshiyot, he didn’t need to say a shi’ur. But by the shel yad people are going to make small, he says, it should be at least a finger. It shouldn’t be really tiny.

Speaker 1: But you need to have space for four parshiyot. I don’t exactly understand what the difference is.

Speaker 2: No, it’s much smaller, because it fits into one small hole. It’s a small hole, you make one hole, and you can compress very strongly the parchment.

Speaker 1: Okay. You can compress it strongly, so it makes sense that the shel yad is easier to make small.

Speaker 2: I don’t know. He speaks of the height, he doesn’t speak of the width though, for example. He only speaks of the height. What comes in the height? I don’t hold with this thing. He only speaks of the height, yes? He doesn’t speak of the width. I don’t know what this comes in here. Something, something I’m missing. It could be that the shi’ur height comes from somewhere. Begovho. How high. So there is a difference how high it is. Earlier you say that there’s no difference how high it is.

Speaker 1: No, it seems that every Torah and mitzva has some shi’ur.

Speaker 2: It doesn’t seem. But here it doesn’t say. There are mitzvot without a shi’ur. Here it doesn’t say that there is a shi’ur. I don’t know.

Speaker 1: But he already had to say the shi’ur on the parshiyot, the Rishonim say on the parshiyot vidui, but that’s not necessarily today. One doesn’t see that there is a shi’ur that one says. The Shut Maharshal says that there is a shi’ur, other Rishonim, but a shi’ur isn’t stated here.

Dispute About the Size of Tefillin

Speaker 1: There are those who are particular about large ones, because large… There are yes, there are more Jews who have such tefillin that is specifically large, because there are Rishonim who say that there is a shi’ur, but it’s not clear.

Speaker 2: Is this also on shel rosh, no?

Speaker 1: That he sees, he brings the shel rosh, because the shel rosh is that in public one makes large. Okay, I don’t know. The Lubavitchers perhaps all have large tefillin, that he goes on this thing in the Gemara that it should be large. Okay, it looks large.

Apparently the retzu’ot should also be a part of the tefillin. He says, if it’s simply an amulet, it should be well tied. Just like when a person goes to the airport and he’s very nervous about his bag, he makes sure that it’s well tied that it hangs right in front of him. He says, the retzu’ot that one wraps around is also a part of the tefillin.

Speaker 2: Nu, wait, what comes in… He already makes about the retzu’ot, what happened with the retzu’ot?

Speaker 1: Further, I don’t have what you mean.

Mechafin Ota Be’or

Speaker 1: Vegovho, yes, in short, mechafin ota be’or, the same thing, one covers it, yes. Mechafin ota be’or ratuv, mani’in et ha’or aleihem ad sheyityabesh veyikrotz ha’or, umachnis arba parshiyot bemakom echad, umechaseh et ha’or milmata, vetofer me’arba penotav, umani’ach mimenu lemata me’at min ha’or, just like in the back the hole where the retzu’a can go through, tofer mekom haretzu’a, that means he makes a hole like a shever, that makes a hole to go through.

Speaker 2: Tofer means a tunnel, just like they say, just like it looks exactly like a tunnel, a loop, it should be a thing. Very good.

Halacha 3 – Order of Parshiyot in Tefillin Shel Rosh

Speaker 1: Says the Rambam, Keitzad seder haparshiyot betefilah shel rosh? What is the order? Which parsha does one place by which side?

Says the Rambam, Machnis parsha achrona, vehaya im shamo’a bebayit sheya’aleh miyemin hamani’ach, uShema samuch lo. The last parsha of the four, according to the order as it stands in the Torah, is Kadesh, Vehaya ki yevia’acha, Shema, Vehaya im shamo’a. It comes out that Vehaya im shamo’a is the last. So the parsha achrona shehi Vehaya im shamo’a, one places bebayit sheya’aleh miyemin hamani’ach. There where one begins apparently, yemin one begins, yemin is the beginning.

UShema samuch lo, Vehaya ki yevia’acha bebayit shelishi samuch leShema, veKadesh li bebayit revi’i lismol hamani’ach tefillin. Kedei shehakore shepanav keneged penei hamani’ach kore al haseder.

Explanation: The Order is for the Reader, Not for the One Placing

The explanation is one writes it, basically the order is, one places it in order, just the order not from the mani’ach, what he says is for the mani’ach, but the mani’ach doesn’t see it, the person who sees it from opposite over sees it.

The whole thing, one doesn’t see anyway, the whole thing is that one doesn’t see from outside the order, and also one doesn’t see the tefillin at all, one can’t open it, one can’t see. It’s closed. But so it says in the Gemara, the Gemara says that one sees it al haseder, and the Gemara says another opposite Gemara, this speaks of the mani’ach, this speaks of the kore.

This isn’t the reason, he only says what means to say right left. It should be so, that the first should come by the right side of the person who places it, his right side. He says no, I look at the right side of the one who stands opposite over, so that’s the right side.

Speaker 2: Yes, this is the holy Ra’avad’s shita, the Ra’avad argues, there were those who said another shita.

Dispute of Rabbeinu Chananel – Both Vehayot in the Middle

Speaker 1: Yes, Rabbeinu Chananel said that vehaya is in the middle, that one writes Kadesh, Vehaya ki yevia’acha, Shema, Vehaya im shamo’a.

Speaker 2: No, Vehaya im shamo’a after Shema, that the two vehayot should be one next to the other. Vehaya ki yevia’acha and Vehaya im shamo’a should be in the middle. So it’s Kadesh and Shema on the two sides, and in the middle are both vehayot. And what says keseder speaks only of Shema and Vehaya im shamo’a, it doesn’t speak of the whole thing, that the Vehaya ki yebia’acha order overrides the thing of lefi seder parshiyot, lefi seder haTorah.

Speaker 1: In short, there is about this a dispute. The Ra’avad holds so, this is also, we call it a dispute of Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam, it’s also a dispute of the Rambam and the Ra’avad, right? The Ra’avad goes like Rabbeinu Tam, and the Rambam wrote a teshuva about this.

Dispute About a Reality – Tefillin of Rav Hai Gaon

In short, it’s a great politics. The Rambam denies what the Ra’avad says that Rav Hai Gaon placed so, he says that he himself saw a hand…

Speaker 2: Ah, the tefillin?

Speaker 1: The Rambam says that he himself saw tefillin of Rav Hai Gaon. This is a matter that people think, that people are very often upset when halachic disputes become, as if one doesn’t believe the other, and really one starts to argue about the reality. How can talmidei chachamim argue about reality? We see here that the Ra’avad and the Rambam argued about a reality, which tefillin Rav Hai Gaon wore.

Because the Ra’avad turns away the Rambam and says that the order must be like Rav Hai Gaon, that the two vehayot should be in the middle, says the Rambam, “I saw tefillin of…” I don’t know if it was direct, but he says the other, that he heard from firsthand.

Speaker 2: What is again the language? “Amar li chacham ne’eman.”

Speaker 1: Aha. He tells a story, that R’ Moshe Hadri, Hadri? Dri? I don’t know, R’ Moshe Dri, he used to do like Rav Hai, like Rabbeinu Tam. He came, no, from Eretz HaMa’arav, from Morocco, to Eretz Yisrael, went so, they showed him divrei haGeonim vehakadmonim, he threw away his tefillin and he made…

Speaker 2: I understand. These are the first Dardaim, see? R’ Moshe HaDarda’i.

Speaker 1: No, this is another thing. Dardaim and Dri isn’t the same thing.

Speaker 2: But a clear proof what is the…

Speaker 1: In short, he brings a proof, already. This is in short, the holy Rambam certainly held so, and so he says. Shulchan Aruch says so, but already. And the Ra’avad says opposite, and Rabbeinu Tam says differently.

In Practice – Placing Both Tefillin

But our tefillin is anyway a compromise, because with Shatnes Gets one takes on…

Speaker 2: What isn’t me’akev?

Speaker 1: What does one take on?

Speaker 2: We make both, and they make both, and they also make the other which is from Rashi. Yes? So…

Speaker 1: That we make both what?

Speaker 2: So Rabbeinu Tam held differently. So in Shulchan Aruch it says that one should make, that whoever wants to conduct himself to place both. There is a serious dispute, and the Rambam says what is me’akev.

Speaker 1: Yes, says the Rambam, as we already learned, how one makes according to seder haparshiyot, just as it’s pasul, and Rabbeinu Tam explains differently. So there was a great dispute, and both sides have serious arguments for their side. It’s not just a dispute. There is the Gemara which is like a contradiction how one learns two Braitot in the Gemara, and there was a dispute what Rav Hai Gaon did, etc. etc. So, a yerei shamayim goes both tefillin actually to fulfill. So says the Shulchan Aruch that one should do.

Discussion: What Does “Yerei Shamayim” Mean?

So therefore, there is a great question, how does one know if one is a yerei shamayim?

Speaker 2: Ah, there were in Chassidic places where one asked the Rebbe, yes? Am I already ready?

Speaker 1: I’ll answer you, if this is your question that you’re really squeezing yourself, are you a yerei shamayim, that you should put on the tefillin. If you seek a Rebbe to become to ask this…

The Lubavitcher Rebbe instituted so, he said that nowadays everyone places their own tefillin from the bar mitzva both already. He even said that generally so, that one does with intention, and the intention has already come.

Speaker 2: What means with intention?

Speaker 1: What is your face, the whole thing is a chumra, it’s a chumra, one should do it. What does it have to do with yerei shamayim? It’s very face. A person shouldn’t be able to be in a spiritual level. It’s a question how one does it. A frum person does both, yotzei yedei shneihem. What is the chiddush to say one should do both? Because there is the mitzva of tefillin is something a matter that one should have the whole day a certain amulet that reminds of the Almighty. A person should have two sets.

Speaker 2: You say that it’s me’akev. If it’s me’akev it’s me’akev. What should every Jew decide to Rambam or Rashi?

Speaker 1: Just as you held the Vilna Gaon, but the Shulchan Aruch didn’t hold like the Vilna Gaon.

Halacha 4 – Tefillin Shel Yad

Speaker 1: It’s a short halachot tefillin shel yad.

Speaker 2: Ah, tefillin shel yad also one writes…

Speaker 1: Ah, the difference is only, one writes it on four pages on one leather like a sefer Torah.

Speaker 2: Ah, further the language “like a sefer Torah” doesn’t mean simply like a sefer Torah that has many columns, like the length that the sheets of the Torah are, so also. The same order, as the Rambam makes a picture, Kadesh Vehaya ki yevia’acha.

Speaker 1: What didn’t the Rambam write?

Speaker 2: What didn’t the Rambam write? Shema Yisrael, Vehaya im shamo’a.

Speaker 1: He says, lechatchila one writes all four parshiyot on one piece, but if one writes on four pieces and one places it in one bayit, also yotzei. One places it, you don’t even need to connect the four pieces of parchment. “Orot” means here a parchment.

Rolling the Parshiyot – From Their End to Their Beginning

Ucheshehu golel haparsha, when he rolls together the parshiyot in order to insert it into the… batim shel rosh ubatim shel yad, golel otan misofan litchilatam, it must already be rolled to the beginning, just like…

Speaker 2: Ah, ad shetemtza cheshetiftach haparsha, tikra kol shita mitchilata lesofa, you should read each line from beginning to end.

Speaker 1: It’s also face, because further, tefillin isn’t made to open and read, but one pretends the whole time that one reads it. It’s the order how one makes it, so the order. We are rolled up and turned around, and why do you read?

Speaker 2: Around alben, stand way.

Speaker 1: Really a wonder, yes.

Digression: Tefillin as Amulet and Remembrance

Tefillin as an Amulet of Remembrance

Think, what is an amulet? Many times an amulet is, like in the stories from exile, yes, it’s a little pouch that had inside the grandmother’s name with Shema Yisrael, leshem yichud Kudsha Brich Hu. Think, it could be that the original amulet, just as there are amulets against harmful spirits, there are amulets of remembrance. Remember I am from the Jewish people, remember that there is a Creator in the world.

Speaker 2: Ah, okay.

Speaker 1: It must be ready technically to be able to open if a person finds himself in exile, he has no heavenly assistance in Torah. What does he have? He has the parshiyos, the four parshiyos, he will begin the leadership of the Exodus from Egypt, and this is indeed the original original remembrance. Once a Jew will open it, you say.

Tefillin as an Amulet of Remembrance

Speaker 1: It’s a little pouch that he has inside the grandmother’s name with Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad. So think, it could be that the original original amulet, this type of amulet, there are amulets against harmful spirits and there are amulets of remembrance. Remember I am from the Jewish people, remember that there is a Creator in the world. So it must be ready to be able to open, if a person finds himself in exile, he doesn’t have a Sefer Torah, what does he have? He has the parshiyos, the four parshiyos, it will remind him of the Exodus from Egypt, this is indeed the original original.

Once a Jew will open it, you say? He will throw it away.

That’s why it’s called an amulet at all, because normally a Jew won’t know about it. He won’t know what it is, he’ll see I have something on my head, wait, what is this? We see from the Second World War in Auschwitz that Jews said that they thought it was a note. It could be that if someone else would have said differently, he would have said that there are praiseworthy books, and one will open it, take it, and one will read it every day, it wouldn’t have been lost, because today Jews don’t know the parshiyos. But think of such a situation, back then the tefillin had to be opened, they had to open them, and he mixed it up at the beginning ready that if one needs to read it.

Amulet as Symbolic Reading of the Torah

One can also say as I saw someone explains, what is an amulet? An amulet is simply like a prayer or a Torah, that instead of you reading it, it reads itself. So it’s as if when you put it on, it becomes as if read. So it’s another type of reading of the Torah. Here there is reading of the Torah from reading Krias Shema, and here there is that one places the Krias Shema on your head, but it must be written on what one can read it, therefore one must write it written on parchment, klaf, what is the difference? It places itself on the intellect, there it reads itself, the Almighty reads it, I don’t read it, it’s a symbolic reading. Okay, whatever. We don’t understand such a good topic of amulets, therefore we don’t understand it.

Speaker 2: No, I say, the amulet is more an amulet of remembrance, and it also stands well.

Speaker 1: Yes, but it could be, but it’s not correct that it’s made that one should open it, like that story is about the boy who was given a pouch that made him stay there. But the remembrance when you put it on…

It’s a passport of being an amulet! One doesn’t open it just like that, because it’s very precious, but there is a concept, let’s say, there is such an idea that I put in here your name and it becomes your grandmother, if this is the last thing you will have… Okay, it’s very good. This is the mitzvah in general, this is the definition. Almost it’s as if one learns it. This is a “as if,” a game. Yes.

Halacha 13 — Cloth and Hair

Speaker 1: So, “and we place them in their parshiyos etc.” Okay, further. Now we will learn about the cloth that one places. The halacha l’Moshe miSinai was that one places the parshiyos in such a little cloth, and afterwards one binds it with a… aha. Aha. Says the Rambam, “and we place them in their parshiyos etc., and we place them in a cloth,” one wraps it around with such a… with a cloth, with a little cloth, a kerchief. And it still says that one leads to sew with parchment, but it’s not part of it. But it should be something bound. Yes. Because a cloth, one binds it with hair, with a little hair, “and afterwards one inserts it into the bayis.” One places it into the bayis, into the bayis shel yad.

Hair from a Kosher Animal

“And this hair,” says the Rambam, “must be hair of a kosher animal or beast.” It must be only from pure things, just as we learned earlier that also by parchment it’s only from kosher animal and beast, because “so that the Torah of Hashem will be in your mouth,” says the Rambam this reason. Even from their neveilos and treifos, not only that they need to be kosher, they need to be from the type that is kosher.

Custom — Hair from Calves’ Tails

Says the Rambam, there is a custom, “and all the people were accustomed to wrap them in hair from calves’ tails.” Indeed a calf is a kosher animal, yes, it’s a cow, a young one. The tail has such strong hair, it seems. And the reason is that one should remember the sin of the Golden Calf, so says Rabbeinu Menachem. It’s a remembrance of the sin of the Golden Calf, not to do the sin of the Golden Calf.

So, further to the next question.

Speaker 2: No, the entire tefillin is as if there is. Really, tefillin is as if, whoever can’t learn, we place Krias Shema with tefillin, but tefillin is instead of Krias Shema. Instead of… You can say, instead of learning Torah all day, one who works should put on tefillin, at least he has a Torah on his head. It’s a quantity of the Torah, at least.

Speaker 1: Yes, but I said that it’s the matter of the Red Heifer, not from the… But the meaning is… No, it’s a calf, not a cow. A calf is not the same thing as a cow. A calf is a baby cow, a baby calf.

Halacha 14 — Sewing the Tefillin with Sinews

Speaker 1: Um, so, further. Ah, for the fulfillment of the positive commandment, it’s the remembrance of the cow. We sew the tefillin.

Yes. When one binds the tefillin, when one doesn’t bind, one sews together, one sews together the batim. We only sew with sinews of a kosher animal or beast. And further the same thing, even from their neveilos and treifos. There it’s not enough thread, one needs a stronger thing, sinews of a kosher animal or beast, and even from their neveilos and treifos.

What are Sinews?

Says the Rambam, what does one do? This is already more a practical thing. Where are the sinews, the thick strong sinews? Below by the heel of the animal and beast, many veins run through, “and they are white and hard,” these are white hard sinews.

I’m pretty sure that gid doesn’t mean veins, but… what do you call it? Tendons. Not arteries. Gid doesn’t mean veins. Gid means muscles, or not muscles, the… the… the tendons it’s called I think in English. It’s such a gid hanasheh. Gid hanasheh is not a vein. It’s such a… it’s the thing that connects the bone to the… to the… to the flesh. I think it’s called in English a tendon.

Speaker 2: Here it’s implied that you’re saying the measure of sinews. I don’t know, there are those who say that it means arteries or veins, but sinews here never means veins. It means specifically such a… where is it called? Yes, it’s such a strong thing, nu. Yes, yes. Cartilage? No. Somewhere in the Torah it says about this it’s cartilage. I don’t know. Okay, could be. Perhaps that is still a piece of this. I’m not sure what is the translation, but I think that this is…

Preparing the Sinews

Speaker 1: Okay. “And we soften them with stones.” The Rambam tells us here how one takes the sinews and makes them into a sort of threads. “We soften them with stones, and we cut them until they become like flax, and then we spin them and twist them, and with them we sew the tefillin and the sheets of a Sefer Torah.”

It’s now already practical how he makes it. Because it’s hard, a strong thing, one makes it soft a bit so that one can use it to sew.

Halacha 15 — Sewing in a Square

Speaker 1: Says the Rambam further, when we sew the tefillin, we sew them… ah, we learned that it must be in a square. The sewing should also be in a square. Halacha l’Moshe miSinai that there should be on each side three stitches, so that there will be all twelve stitches, both in the shel yad and in the shel rosh. You say here, you see the square of how one cuts is usually not the exact exact square like the square is in the actual box. Why? Because that one makes with a machine.

What Does “Sewing in a Square” Mean?

What are we talking about enough? Halacha prevalent, it’s not clear what this means sewing in a square. This one needs to know. The Rambam says what does sewing in a square mean? One makes it anyway, because you bend it over. But how will you make it? You can make one like this, one like this. This way one can sew it. Ah, can I make sewing with a box? Random sewing, a bunch of stitches, I sewed it around. That’s what our scribes do, but I think that this is it.

Speaker 2: Yes, it’s it, but the halacha prevalent from the Rambam, he means to say that it’s a custom, right? The custom is that one makes three. Not clear. It’s correct, because… because this is an even number. What does he say here the number? I understand, but it’s not an obligation. One can make four and five. He will make more stitches, yes.

B’dieved — Ten or Fourteen Stitches

Speaker 1: Eh, good. “If he made ten or fourteen stitches, it’s valid.” One can also make, but it should be an even amount. It should be in sewing, that’s the point. It should be in a square. It shouldn’t be that on one side is one long stitch, and on… it must also be balanced. How is there ten or fourteen? Practically, practically. But it shouldn’t be that it’s invalidating. Someone specifically wants to make…

Individual Stitches — Complete Loops

“Individual stitches, individual stitches of a person sews and hides washing.” What this means, I don’t know. “Individual stitches, individual stitches of a person sews,” I understand. I think he means when one sews, each stitch should go completely. Sometimes one makes such a zig-zag, up and down. When you look at the tefillin, it’s not a zig-zag. You go in, you go out, you go in, you go out. You don’t make up and down a zig-zag. You make a complete loop on each one. So he says here, it should be on each one it should be stronger supposedly.

Halacha 16 — Groove in the Tefillin Shel Rosh

Speaker 1: Yes. Another halacha, “and it’s necessary that the groove reach.” I learned that by tefillin shel rosh one makes such a groove. “And it’s necessary that the groove,” the groove of tefillin shel rosh, should reach “until the place of the sewing.” It shouldn’t be, not simply that it should be such four. It should look like a complete closed box, and one should see that there are grooves here from external batim. First he speaks about what is truly. Someone could have made it like, it becomes only four from above, from below it’s one big one. No, it should be four from below.

L’chatchila vs. B’dieved

“And from the outside there should be a visible groove so that it will be clearly marked for all, even without any groove revealed from here and there, even so they are kosher.” But the leather doesn’t need to be. That that it must be the groove until the place of sewing, this is only l’chatchila. “And if there is no visible groove, they are invalid.” It must be visible that it’s four pieces.

Custom — Sinew Through the Grooves

And consequently what does one do? There is someone, “and he will pass through each and every groove a thread of leather or a thread of silk to pass between bayis and bayis.” One sews around so that one should see. One places in, one places through a cord. And the custom is, “and the widespread custom is to pass a sinew from deer sinews in each groove of the three,” in each one of the three grooves. The custom is that one places in not just a thread or silk, but one places in specifically the sinew, the same type that one uses to sew the entire tefillin. I think that when one sews it one places it then. When one sews it one gives a placement through there, so that what? It should be a higher distinction between bayis and bayis. It’s important that one should see that it’s four pieces, four batim, four aha.

Halacha 17 — Straps

Speaker 1: Yes. Says the Rambam, “until here are the laws of the tefillin.” How does one make the straps? Says the Rambam, “how do we make the straps? We take a strap of leather.” How wide must it be? “Wide like the width of a barley grain,” the length of a… the width side of the barley grain.

Length of the Straps

“And its length,” how long must it be? “The strap of the head enough that it encircles the head and one ties from it a knot, and two straps emerge from here and there until they reach the navel or a bit above it.” After the heart, it should cover us in a tallis half of his… How long is the strap of the hand? “And also the strap of the hand enough that it encircles the arm,” it should encompass the hand on which one places tefillin, and how already managing, and should be able to be kosher, and should be able to go out… the measure is the strap.

Measure of the Strap Shel Yad

Speaker 1:

How long is the strap shel yad?

Words of the Rambam: “The strap shel yad enough that it encircles his arm, so that one can encompass the hand on which one places tefillin, and one ties from it a knot, and one strap extends until his middle finger.”

He doesn’t say one makes extra windings on the hand, extra bindings on the hand, but one should be able to go until… He speaks here about the measure, the minimum how long it must be. Yes.

“And one winds from it on his finger three windings and ties.”

It must be so long that one can wind around here once above by the arm, and another three times on the finger, and afterwards make a binding. But it can still be longer than this.

“If the straps were long, he adds to the windings and to the bindings.”

It’s a measure, it’s not a maximum. Right. Okay.

—

Knot of the Head

Speaker 1:

Says the Rambam further:

“He inserts the strap of the head into its ring” — the ring, the place in the back of the tefillin where one places through the strap, one places in — “and encircles according to the measure of his head” — the strap goes around the head — “and ties…”

Again, he speaks now how he makes the knot. He places a piece approximately as large as the measure of his head, and afterwards ties a knot etc.

—

“Every Person Must Learn This Knot”

Speaker 1:

Says the Rambam: “Every person must learn this knot.”

He says, I have explained to you here a lot how one takes a piece of hide, everything, but how should I explain to you here how one makes the knot? Every Jew, everything has a measure, you can’t just become in my book. You have already learned all the measures of Sefer HaMadda until where we hold now, you are a talmid chacham, figure it out.

But he means to say, there is a halacha that a talmid chacham, it says in the Gemara, he must actually see it on other tefillin, he must see it on someone’s tefillin, he must learn it. There is a halacha, he says here two other things. There is a law that a talmid chacham must know how to make a knot on tefillin. What is a talmid chacham? A talmid chacham is one who knows Torah. Whatever a talmid chacham is, he must know how to make a knot. But besides that he must know all the halachos, he must also know how to make a knot of tefillin. There is a Gemara that a talmid chacham must know a few things, besides that he must be able to learn, he must also know…

Speaker 2:

Knot of tefillin?

Speaker 1:

Yes, knot of tefillin. This is the halacha that the Gemara said that a talmid chacham must know. “Rabbi Avin said in the name of Rav, three things a talmid chacham must learn, writing, slaughtering and circumcision, and also the knot of tefillin and the blessings of grooms and tzitzis.”

Speaker 2:

Wow!

Discussion: Why Must a Talmid Chacham Know the Knot of Tefillin?

Speaker 1:

The interesting thing is that the Rema doesn’t bring properly all these other things. There are those who say that the Rema perhaps brings it yes implied. The word is, a talmid chacham simply, a question comes, someone asked him, “Fix my tefillin for me,” and he says, “I have no idea how one makes tefillin.” “Ah, also me a talmid chacham that you are, you don’t even know how to make tefillin.” A Gemara-like talmid chacham must be a wise person, not a tefillin maker. It’s indeed a novelty that a talmid chacham must know it.

Speaker 2:

I think like this, the first knot of tefillin Moshe Rabbeinu saw, and the talmid chacham is always the one who transmits the Torah from Moshe, talmid chacham.

Speaker 1:

Perhaps. Very good. But now the Rema says another thing, that I have told you until now everything precisely how one makes it, but the picture I cannot make in writing.

Speaker 2:

Perhaps this is the picture to what he said, “but a talmid chacham must learn”? Perhaps he means to say…

Speaker 1:

Perhaps this is what the Gemara means to say also, that a talmid chacham is the one who knows all written things, but one cannot write precisely how one makes a knot, for this you must learn it in another way.

Speaker 2:

Yes, but it’s not clear, because the Gemara has writing, slaughtering, and circumcision, it’s not mitzvos, it’s not obligations. He means practically. The Gemara, the things that a talmid chacham must know, are practical things.

Speaker 1:

This is also a practical thing. One should be a form of dalet.

Speaker 2:

Blessings of grooms and tzitzis?

Speaker 1:

Yes, but tzitzis means how one ties tzitzis.

Speaker 2:

Blessings of grooms is the text.

Speaker 1:

The text of the order of kiddushin, seven blessings.

Speaker 2:

The text of the blessings. Yes, but you come to a wedding and you don’t know how to make the blessings, that’s embarrassing.

Speaker 1:

But perhaps it means more the laws around it.

Speaker 2:

No, it apparently means this. He does make it. Today one can make a picture. I mean the Rema simply didn’t know how to make a picture.

Speaker 1:

One can make a picture of the kesher shel tefillin. I mean it’s not impossible.

Speaker 2:

You know what, everyone who draws it should transmit it accurately.

Speaker 1:

Can. One needs to write instructions. Today’s siddurim, there are many instructions. You can still make it so it looks right.

Speaker 2:

The Rema didn’t know how to do this back then.

Speaker 1:

Yes, sorry, because the Rema is also flesh and blood. And it could be perhaps in his time there wasn’t any technique of pictures, that’s how it goes. Whatever. But in today’s times, there’s a picture on the side, you can see. Very good. The Rambam is so perfect that the whole time we need to find hints that he’s not flesh and blood. By other sefarim it doesn’t fail that I should call it out every few minutes. The Rambam says, wait a minute.

Okay, anyways, it’s interesting, because the Rambam is… You see the limitation that the Rambam writes in this chapter. He wants to say it, he leaves it, then he says “but”, go ask, go look how it looks. Because there they didn’t make the drawing of the four things that he wrote. I don’t know what the pictures he saw looked like.

—

Kesher Shel Yad Like a Yud, Kesher Shel Rosh Like a Dalet

Speaker 1:

Okay. “And one ties the shel yad with a knot like a yud” — “like a yud”, it looks like a yud. So the shel rosh is a dalet, and the shel yad is a yud.

“So that the strap of the hand goes up and down through the knot so that he can widen and shorten it until he wants to tie it on his hand.”

That means, the shel rosh… He makes another loop one needs to make. I’m not sure what the Rambam means that one needs to make a loop. It could be that he means one should make the knot loose so it can go up. I’m not sure what he means.

The point is, that in the shel rosh one only makes one tying with the head and it goes up like that. As the Rambam said, “and the tefillin shall be on your head”, “that it should be tied on the head”. Unlike the hand where one needs to tie it every day, as one ties it each day. The Rambam says, one should leave the knot a bit loose, and one lets the knot go up and down, and then one gives it a tie each day.

From here there’s a bit of proof against those who conduct themselves that one needs to shave four times a year, because then one needs to move the knot of the tefillin. If one shaves every period of time, it’s not so exact.

—

Color of Straps

Speaker 1:

Okay, I continue. One needs to begin. Straps of tefillin. Ah, it’s already three o’clock. What should one do? Finish? I can’t finish the whole thing in four minutes. Do you have a shiur now or something?

So now one needs to learn what one makes the straps, right? Until now it was the laws of the batim. We already learned about the straps, we already learned about the knot of the straps. The color of the straps we learned that it’s also halacha l’Moshe miSinai, yes? What did we learn earlier?

Words of the Rambam: “The straps of tefillin, both of the head and of the hand, both, their outer surfaces are black.”

The outside, what does outside mean? That means, outside, and also regarding the order of tefillin it was said that the main thing is the outside, how the person opposite sees it. Ah, tefillin is because other people should me… I don’t want to speak about the outside. It’s very interesting. And the opinion tells us that it’s opposite the heart, it’s very strong for inwardness. One sees that it’s also the externality to show. You don’t do it, you do it mainly for the externality. The Rambam doesn’t reckon the reason of opposite the heart with things. He doesn’t reckon this reason with the other things.

Okay, and on the outside one makes them black, and this is halacha l’Moshe miSinai. Halacha l’Moshe miSinai it says, black straps halacha l’Moshe miSinai, meaning to say the externality of the straps.

“But the back of the strap” — it’s Olam Rav Shlomo Eiger, because they’re not exposed — “if they were green or white” — if they are green or white — “they’re also kosher. But red one should not make” — why? One will however not make it — “lest the strap turn over and it’s a disgrace for him.”

Red is a disgrace. What is a cheerful color? What is the matter that red is bad? Red, fire is red, he brings that Rashi says that one will think that he was a niddah and became bloody. Ah I understand. Others say, he brings there a reason. The Maggid Mishneh says there a pshat that it’s such an immodest color. Or that the priests, the idolaters, go like that.

I was just held up a bit, someone had tefillin that’s a bit brownish, and people told him that it’s apparently not kosher. But one needs to know when the Rambam says black, does he mean it must be exactly our color black, or a black that has become faded? That I don’t know. But when the Rambam doesn’t speak of black, he says green or white or red, he doesn’t speak of less black. Also it’s interesting, because there are places where it says… what could be there are places where one sees that black can mean blue or… Yes, I remember, the Rambam says that the techelet is black, and he means to say blue. Noteh l’shachor, no, he doesn’t say noteh l’shachor. But I remember there’s such a discussion that he calls it black. So I don’t know.

—

“And the Back of the Strap Should Only Be Like the Ketzitzah”

Speaker 1:

Okay, “And beauty for tefillin…” ah, “And they should not be…” another thing. But what yes? “And the back of the strap should never be except like the ketzitzah.”

The back of the strap doesn’t have to be black, as we discussed, but it should be like the ketzitzah. Should be from the same color as the ketzitzah. The ketzitzah is what? The bottom of the… ketzitzah he means to say the tefillin. Ketzitzah means the piece apparently, because the material is black.

But here, this is apparently the topic here, it’s beauty. This is not the halacha l’Moshe miSinai. Beautiful is that the whole thing is black. Interesting, I go tefillin actually that… By the Rambam, there are sofrim who sell tefillin that is painted black on both sides. But the world is not particular about this. Today most have already come like that, yes. But the world… No, it used to be the back was a corner of the ketzitzah, like the bottom of the tefillin. But it becomes that the Rambam says that this is not yet introduced for the sofrim to paint from the… The good is first difficult because we need that it becomes blackened, only rabbi it’s actually the grapes. Yes. The straps become blackened. Doesn’t mean. Anyways…

—

From Which Hide Does One Make Straps

Speaker 1:

Already, now, from which hide can one make it? From which leather? Is it basically the same law as we learned until now. Yes?

Words of the Rambam: “The hide that one makes tefillin with, that they are from the same type of hide” — is from the same type of hide — “hide of domesticated and wild kosher animals” — hide of domesticated and wild animals according to Torah, which should be from the type of Torah — “and even their neveilot and tereifot.”

Even their neveilot and tereifot, which is not kosher, but the type is kosher, the essence and the type. Means. Means. Good. Evil… Um, sorry. It seems that the hide of neveilot and tereifot are not from the same type as pure animals. It seems that the neveilah and tereifah is not a bad animal, or something happened to it, happens like that… One may not eat it, but its hide still has validity with it. Eating its meat one may not, but its hide is kosher, as it were. So neveilah and tereifah gets the category of a non-kosher animal, as it were, you have one type of category which means things that one may not eat, but one doesn’t see it that way, it’s a category by itself.

Hide one doesn’t eat, it’s not even eating, do you understand what I’m saying? One can still make a permit, but tefillin is do you understand what I’m saying? It’s kosher.

Hide from Neveilah and Tereifah Regarding Tefillin

That means that the neveilah and tereifah doesn’t become a bad animal that something happened to it, it’s simply like… One may not eat it, but its hide is still “nothing wrong with it”. Eating its meat one may not, but its hide is kosher as it were.

So neveilah and tereifah gets the category of a non-kosher animal. As it were you have one type of category which means things that one may not eat. But one doesn’t see it that way, it’s a category by itself. Hide we don’t eat, it’s not even forbidden as it were, do you understand? One can only make a hide, but tefillin it’s simply that it’s kosher as it were. Could be the prohibition to eat, it doesn’t become a non-kosher animal. Non-kosher animal is only relevant when the whole species of animal is non-kosher.

Okay. Now… No difference, even regarding opinions and washing, true, there is tumah of neveilah, but it’s a kosher animal. Um, it’s tamei, tamei means mainly for eating, but it’s a type of tamei.

Processing L’shmah by Straps and Batim

He says further, and the hide of the straps requires processing l’shmah. Here you forgot they gave non-kosher hides, makes a kippah for tefillin from gold, because he didn’t use hide at all, he used a metal, he placed gold. The law is that it must be from hide of kosher animals specifically.

He says further, and the hide of the straps requires processing l’shmah. The hide of the straps one needs processing l’shmah. When one processes the hide it must be l’shmah, like the batim. On the contrary, the Rambam doesn’t say. No, the batim don’t need processing l’shmah, they learned l’shmah by the format, sorry, by the format that one writes on it.

But the hide that one covers with it, meaning the covering that covers the batim, meaning the batim, yes? That which covers the parshiyot, the small case of the parshiyot, doesn’t require processing at all, and even if made from matzah, it’s kosher. What is made from matzah? Ah, I thought it’s still the chametz from matzah by… Not processed at all, by… What’s it called? By by the batim. It seems that if the hide is matzah and chametz. What does chametz mean? Processed. The opposite of processed is called matzah. One sees that matzah means “that is not salted and not floured and not baked” it says in the Gemara. Not processed at all. It’s too raw. Like matzah, it’s a raw piece of dough.

Is this a question, the Ramban has this question. And not only that, but there were places where one did conduct themselves, “in places where they were accustomed to cover them with matzah hide”. Could be that matzah hide means a hard hide, like our matzah is hard? No, it means not processed. No, no, no, it means not processed, it means as opposed to processed. Could be that the land land… The Ramban says that the custom is yes, ours should be processed. The Ramban says so. The Shulchan Aruch rules that one must process the four batim. They say that the other Rishonim argue, but the Ramban says that one doesn’t need. Processing, processing l’shmah for the batim. If one needs processing l’shmah, all the more so that one needs processing, yes?

Who Can Make Tefillin — Their Making Like Their Writing

Now we’ll learn who can make it. Just like writing the tefillin must be a Jew who is a pious Jew, yes, one who is not an apostate, not a heretic, write the same thing tefillin. Making the tefillin, “only a Jew”, only a Jew. “Their making is like their writing”. Making the tefillin, that means the batim of the tefillin, has the same laws as writing the tefillin.

Here the Ramban says why, because of “the shin that they make in the hide and preserve”. We learned earlier that one makes a shin in the hide. Precisely here one sees that it’s not just a decoration for beauty, it’s specifically that… I hear. It has the law of writing. It has the law of writing. It’s an interesting Torah from the Ramban.

But Rabbeinu Tam needs a Jew to do it. Yes, it’s a bit difficult, but so, why does a Jew need to make the shin and the rest… Could be that the Ramban says a simple fact, that the non-Jew doesn’t know how to make a shin. You can tell him to make a bayit, making a shin on it already needs to have a Jew, it’s already harder. Ah, according to how the Ramban understood that processing l’shmah one needs to have, it makes sense to do well. Yes, one doesn’t do any Jew will put sacrifices in the head. It makes sense because one… Yes, it makes sense. From here one can’t necessarily learn that the Rambam holds it must be… One must be wants a thing reasons, it’s no difference and be what today different from the then, as it were… Yes, but all commentators ask on this, on this Rambam, so don’t understand.

No, I can’t can further be that the shin that we learned last night, is basically such a decoration. But the decoration the ornament is a shin, it wants to the Muslims not today that it was written by a Jew, but the word is, the Rambam says that today does me… there are other reasons why a non-Jew doesn’t do it, he asked me regarding a law whether a non-Jew can, he says he, one needs he he finish writing a shin, and non-Jews don’t write any shin. It comes from the Gemara this thing, since the shin stands, the question is, if so what about tefillin shel yad, and what about tefillin shel yad, what about the other things? Okay, not only the shin, and covering. Besides that, it’s allowed a non-Jew, what we learned earlier, a minor, a woman, a servant, a am ha’aretz, etc. he could have learned about the sanctity of the part of tefillin the sanctity of the part of tefillin, yes.

Tefillin Shel Rosh and Tefillin Shel Yad — Holiness Differences

The Rambam says, with tefillin shel rosh, one makes makes shel yad, with tefillin shel rosh is more important, is more the essence of the mitzvah of tefillin, so with more essence, perhaps it stands first in the verse, and because makes on hand opposite in the head, no, on the contrary, first it stands afterwards. Why is tefillin shel rosh important? When will one see it? Because it has four parshiyot extra! In short, one can’t downgrade it, I make descending in holiness and make it shel yad? What it should yes, may one make, as long as and I it should admittedly again one can?, ah, have you four to pieces, can. I know fits so, how one can do it practically, I don’t know. But to break the pieces in the middle and make from it one large box, the Shulchan Aruch sees me the honest. Sign, even the verse “l’ot” – “and they shall see” is a drasha, but the word “l’ot” means what one can see, a sign, a flag.

Okay. But on the contrary yes, even…

From the authority of tefillin shel rosh one doesn’t give to tefillin shel yad.

No, good. The Rambam says, “It is permitted however that the tefillin on his head should always be on him all day, provided he doesn’t divert his attention from them, but he is not permitted to place them on his hand”. Why? Because the importance is not in the object, that agrees with what you said. The importance is actually with wearing them, with putting them on.

One Suspends for Them One Hide from Above — How Does One Make Four Batim into One

Ah, the Ketzot HaChoshen… Ah, he asks a tremendous question, how does one make that four batim should become one? One suspends for them one hide from above. What is the meaning of “suspends”? Rabbeinu Tam says “suspends” means he plays around all… Suspend means a patch, like from the language of “patches”, no, does one say “patches”? Suspend, he makes a… he flattens it, he goes out another piece of hide to cover the… he covers the four pieces with another piece. So apparently the meaning…

Okay, the kesher of Yehuda, yes, that means kesher shel yad, what you said. The point is, this way it becomes a tefillin shel yad.

Tefillin Whose Stitching Tore — Torn Stitches

Okay. Tefillin whose stitching tore. Well, what happened if the tefillin tears a bit, the stitching of the tefillin? Yes?

Um, “Tefillin whose stitching tore”, it tore, it opened a bit. Yes, in Menachot it says, “stitching that became distant, if three stitches tore, even if they’re not permanent ones, these are invalid”.

No, good. Why is it invalid? Because it tore, it’s a… stitching is one of the laws, it must be… one stitches them with sinews, yes. From? One stitches them with sinews, the halacha l’Moshe miSinai, as one learns at the beginning of the chapter. Yes.

Difference Between Old and New

Okay, but the Gemara says, but, the Rambam says, “it is permitted however”… What is the meaning of “old”? Old tefillin, and ours already tore. Then it was no longer good quality tefillin. But new…

If the back piece is permanent, “back piece” means the back piece, that which he earlier called “ketzitzah”. Apparently, the base…

So the law is that it’s kosher. Because it holds strongly. Later when one needs to take the stitches, afterwards.

Ah, that’s the pshat of the Shulchan Aruch. The Rema brings this, “these and these are holy, but one holds the minority in his hand so it won’t tear and come apart, and suspends the tefillin on it, and if the thread is cut there’s nothing in it except new ones”. Aha. “And if he has only old ones, if a defect occurred in these and these tore, these are old ones”.

That means chadashot is, as you say, I didn’t catch the simple meaning. Chadashot is simply because it’s stronger, and the stitching stands out less. The tefillin can’t be half torn and half fallen apart tefillin. And sewing helps. I remember the advice. Sewing helps, yes.

Retzu’ah Shenifskah — A Torn Strap

Good. What about a strap that tore, yes? It broke off. “Ein koshran ve’ein tofran, ela motzi’ah ugenazah ve’oseh acheret”. This is apparently from the basic law, because the tefillin must be “keshirah temah”. The Gemara has an interesting derasha, “kesher tam” means “keshirah temah”, a beautiful one, not patched up.

Okay. “Shi’ur haretzu’ah pesalum”. Aha. What does that mean? The piece that remained, you might think that you could use it for a child? Can you now take the small piece that remained for a child? Didn’t we learn earlier that it’s “orech haretzu’ah keshi’ur”? Ah, now. Didn’t we learn earlier that there’s a shi’ur, each one must have a shi’ur. I don’t understand something.

Perhaps he means to say that… No, “shi’ur haretzu’ah” means the other side tore, the long strap tore in the middle, yes? What do I do? I can’t tie it or sew it, because that’s not nice. Can I perhaps take the other piece to use for the tefillin? The problem is that it doesn’t have a shi’ur. It’s not a chiddush, the halachah is simply so. And the piece that’s for a small bar mitzvah boy is a shi’ur, it’s kosher. Yes, you’ll put it back at the beginning. What is tying the tefillin itself, I don’t understand the… It’s apparently simple. I don’t know why he says this.

Pnei Or Haretzu’ot — Black Side Up

The Rambam says, “Le’olam yizaher liheyot pnei or haretzu’ot lema’alah, besha’ah shekoshran al rosho ve’al zero’o”. He taught him that it’s only black on one side, so apparently only he is the one who has black on one side. Ah, the whole matter he said that the tefillin has many hidden things, the person opposite should see it, one must show him the beautiful side.

As it says somewhere, “venohin leba’er”, when the Gemara tells stories about a tefillin strap that turned over,

The Rambam’s Halachah About the Straps

It’s apparently simple, why shouldn’t you have both sides?

The Rambam says, “Ule’olam yizaher liheyot pnei or haretzu’ot lema’alah, shehi keshurah al yado ve’al rosho”. He says, that we learned that it’s only black on one side, he’s apparently only speaking about the one that has black on one side. Ah, the whole matter that you said that the tefillin has much to do with the people opposite should see it, and they will show him the beautiful side. So it says somewhere, “venohin leba’er”.

The Story of Fasting Forty Days

When the Gemara tells the story that a tefillin strap turned over, and there was someone who fasted forty days because a tefillin strap turned over. It’s very interesting, it’s simply so like a fundamental principle here. It’s like the mitzvah that became disgusting. Apparently, once you do the advice of dyeing both sides, you don’t need to have any fear, no? That’s the matter.

It can still be, even today’s tefillin that we make both, it’s more beautiful on one side, no? Perhaps one makes a distinction, one knows what the more beautiful side is. I don’t know.

The Sofer’s Claim About Today’s Straps

The sofer who sells the straps claims that the truth… He brings in here, the Rambam says “tamid”. Forty days, do you know how strict that is? Fasting forty days for such a small result. Yes, you know how it’s not worth fasting forty days. That forty days he… And I say, the sofer claims that the reason we make today’s tefillin black on both sides is mainly safety, so that one shouldn’t need to repaint. If you only paint the top, normally it scratches off. So he claims that the patent is, that not only on all sides, it’s more than the Rambam says, they will make… Somehow the whole thing becomes black. This hiddur didn’t occur to the Rambam. But I bought it, because the Rambam says one should have a beautiful hiddur, so one can fulfill the Rambam’s hiddur. About this more happens, it’s not a matter to be nervous.

So one wants to be from the Rambam group, aha, here we have a way, black straps on both sides. Fine, and apparently one really doesn’t need to be concerned about the second side then, I don’t know. I don’t know exactly what he’s talking about here at all. On the head it’s not relevant, how is it turned over? When does one see it then? On the head apparently.

The Real Fine: Disrespect for Tefillin

Yes, but then it’s occupied. It could be that the real fine is because you put on tefillin and didn’t pay attention. Just as you want to make it more… You put on tefillin and very rushed. When a person puts on tefillin and he pays attention, it doesn’t happen that things turn over.

Ah, he brings that about this it’s a disrespect for tefillin.

Sefer Eshkol in the Name of Rav Tzemach Gaon

He brings from the Sefer Eshkol in the name of Rav Tzemach Gaon, that this is that one must fast, first of all one doesn’t need to fast, it’s only a middat chassidut. But this is only if during the placement it wasn’t, if later it turned over it’s nothing. Even if one changes their form it’s nothing. It’s not a disgrace when it’s reversed, only the matter of hiddur. That you don’t put on the tefillin with respect, that you have disrespect for the tefillin.

Conclusion

Okay, until here the laws of how one makes the tefillin. It’s interesting, this already belongs to the next chapter of how one puts on the tefillin. Okay.