Tefillin (תפילין) — phylacteries

Core definition

Tefillin are the four-compartmented head-box (shel rosh) and single-compartmented arm-box (shel yad) containing the four Torah portions (Shema, V'haya im shamoa, Kadesh, V'haya ki y'viacha), worn in prayer. In the maamarim, tefillin are "called פאר" — glory/ornament (Yechezkel 24:17, "פארך חבוש עליך," applied by the Sages to tefillin; Zohar III) — "ישראל אשר בך אתפאר" ("Israel, in you I am glorified") — "the tefillin's glory is through Israel specifically" [58845/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 5–8; Summary (p. רלג)]. They are also totafos — from the etymology of totafes as ornament/jewel (Mishnah Shabbos 6) — a jewel being higher than garments, "for man adorns himself with it" [58845/maamar_021 :: Summary (p. רלג)].

How the Rebbeim develop it

The fullest treatment is the maamar ד״ה תפילין דמארי עלמא ("The Tefillin of the Master of the World") on the Sages' teaching: "The Holy One, blessed be He, dons tefillin — what is written in them? 'ומי כעמך ישראל' (who is like Your people Israel)" (Berachos 6a) — "Israel's praises" written in the supernal tefillin, specifically "on the arm" [58845/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 2–4; Summary (p. רלג)]. The tefillin below thus mirror tefillin above — and the supernal tefillin's content is Israel themselves.

Cosmologically, "the four houses of tefillin hint to the vessels of the mochin — chabad" (chochmah, binah, da'as): "the tefillin are the aspect of added mochin (intellect) drawn to Ze'ir Anpin" — the compartments being "Ze'ir Anpin's gulgolta" (skull), "the parshiyos within them — the mochin and Abba v'Imma's lights within them" [58845/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 624–633; Summary (p. רמז–רמט)]. Why is this needed, when Ze'ir Anpin always has mochin? "Those are mochin relative to middos only; tefillin draw essential mochin — tosefes ohr (added light) from Arich Anpin's lights enclothed in Abba v'Imma" — protruding as a makif on Ze'ir Anpin's head (on Shabbos it is inward — hence no tefillin) [58845/maamar_021 :: Summary (p. רמז–רמט)]. As tikunim — "עשר תיקונין," the ten fixings — they are lights united with their vessels, fixing and adorning the mochin [58845/maamar_021 :: Summary (p. רלג)].

"הקב״ה מניח תפילין" is explained in two true senses [58845/maamar_021 :: Summary (p. רמט–רנ); Overview]: (1) "הקב״ה" = the Emanator's atzmiyus (the inwardness of Adam Kadmon, "above even one thought") — "the Holy One, blessed be He, dons tefillin" meaning "the drawing of added lights in Atzilus's mochin" (the keser mediating: karkafta d'tefillin) [58845/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 800–802; Overview]; (2) "הקב״ה" = Ze'ir Anpin of Atzilus, crowned with the four parshiyos from Abba v'Imma (Zohar Va'eschanan 262b) — "binding kodesh (without vav — unrelated to worlds) into kadosh (with vav = sovev kol almin)" [58845/maamar_021 :: Overview]. In both readings, tefillin "join the aspect of the Holy One, blessed be He, with the worlds" — "a drawing of the revelation of the Ohr Ein Sof above the aspect of keser" [58845/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 896–904].

The Shlah (Vayechi 305a) maps the two tefillin onto the Patriarchs: "Yackov is תפילין של ראש and Yosef is תפילין של יד" [58845/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 1156]. The head-tefillin (Yackov) draw the atzmiyus as added light in Abba v'Imma's/Ze'ir Anpin's mochin — "Yackov = yibaka: the line's bursting through the contraction-darkness by its light's force" — extending the Essence to Atzilus; the hand-tefillin (Yosef = yesod/malchus, "יד כהה") draw it to Beriah, Yetzirah, Asiyah — "בן פורת יוסף": "poras is the letters of tofer (sews): for he sews and joins... and this is 'בן פורת יוסף': תפילין של יד — which joins the Ohr Ein Sof with the created beings" [58845/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 1239–1242; Summary (p. רנח–רס)]. Tefillin is itself "a term of joining" (hischabrus) [58845/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 1240].

In avodah, tefillin draw the supernal jewel — the thirteen attributes of mercy, "the bride's jewels" — through Israel's kavanah: "the tefillin's intent (Shulchan Aruch): to subjugate heart and brain — as one subjugated to a master, all else secondary" — this self-effacement (shiriyim, remnants) is what draws rachum v'chanun [58845/maamar_021 :: Summary (p. רמט–רנ)]. And it is "through Israel's mitzvos, for the neshamos Yisrael's bitul (as the foot to the head) uniquely draws the added lights — hence 'ומי כעמך ישראל גוי אחד בארץ' on the supernal arm" [58845/maamar_021 :: Overview]. Tefillin are chayim — drawing from the pre-contraction atzmiyus (ma'arich yamim) [58845/maamar_021 :: Overview].

Key distinctions

Related concepts

Sources