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Celebrating our 27th season!
oin Rabbi Elimelech Silberberg for a course on
mystical concepts in Judaism
Sundays • 11 a.m.
Beginning on January 20th
at the Sara Tugman Bais Chabad Torah Center
5595 W. Maple Rd., W. Bloomfield
For more information about this class as well as other
classes on Jewish Mysticism & Basic Judaism
call the Torah Center 248-855-6170
visit us at bctc770@aol.com
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1 / 1 8
2002
56
The Mitzvah Of Tefillin
Celebrates Freedom Daily
puny arms, and we should feel it
every day.
Every pair of tefillin contains vers-
es from our portion, as well as the
more familiar selections from
Deuteronomy, which are included in
the Shema. Here we read that "they
he day my great-grandfa-
shall
be a sign upon your hand, and
ther of blessed memory left
a reminder between your eyes, so
the old country, there was
that the Lord's teaching shall be in
high drama in the family.
your mouth; for with a mighty arm
His parents fretted about this - depar-
the Lord brought you out of Egypt
ture for the treif medinah (unkosher
(13:9)."
world) of America. Somehow, they
In his profound Torah commen-
knew that across the Atlantic lay not
tary
Haamek Davar, Rabbi Naphtali
only freedom, but also forgetfulness.
Tzvi Yehudah Berlin explains the tie
My great-grandfather knew this,
between Passover and tefillin. With
too. To make the point crystal clear,
he left a small package behind on the anything important in life, there is a
need for both regular maintenance
kitchen table. His tefillin (phylacter-
and for the occasional rigorous
ies) would not journey across the sea
inspection.
The festival of Pesach is
with him to the new world.
our
annual appointment for
The leather straps and boxes
probing the meaning of
full of scrolls represented the
redemption in all its depth.
confinements of tradition
But tefillin function is a
and memory. In America,
daily reminder of our
his head would be
extraordinary history and
unadorned and unburdened
mission.
by the expectations of his
When I bind tefillin to
forebears.
my
arm each morning
No sidelocks or tefillin
(except Shabbat and certain
would brand my great-
RABBI
festivals), they remind me
grandfather as a freak in the
DANIEL
not only of God's mighty
free world. Yiddish accent or
NEVINS
arm of redemption, but of
not, he would become a real
Special to the
my own potential as well.
American. He succeeded
Jewish
News
Tefillin
are worn on the
beautifully in this mission; it
weaker
arm
as if to say that
would be three generations
it
is
not
our
physical
might,
before the mitzvah of tefillin
but our spiritual resolve, that will
would draw his assimilated American
ultimately change this world.
great-grandson back into the ancient
traditions and teachings of the Jewish Between our eyes, the tefillin filter
what we see — and seek — in this
people. When I was 13, tefillin
world; they massage the mind with
became the catalyst for my Jewish
the message of God's moral teaching.
journey of study and spiritual redefi-
Too many Jews still see tefillin the
nition.
way
my great-grandfather did, as
Tefillin represent the ties that bind
archaic and oppressive. But today in
us to our history. This is no doubt
America, we are no longer oppressed
why the dramatic portion that nar-
or insecure. Recalling our origins
rates our Exodus culminates with the
gives meaning to our freedom — to
curious ritual of tefillin. Parshat Bo
spread the light of Torah wherever
has extraordinary power to recreate
the experience of the Exodus for later the darkness of ignorance and
generations. We can see the blood on oppression prevails. ❑
the doorposts, taste the matzos and
hear the cries of bereaved Egyptian
families. All of this will be recalled
on Pesach.
But in the closing lines of the por-
Trace the practice and meaning
tion, the reach of ritual memory is
of a Jewish ritual from generation
extended even further. The Torah
to generation in your family. "
demands a daily physical ritual of
What
rituals have been
memory — the mitzvah of tefillin.
reclaimed, and which have been
We shall feel the mighty arm of
discarded? What will the next
deliverance, God's power, in our own
generation uncover and embrace
from our distant past?
Daniel Nevins is a spiritual leader at
Adat Shalom Synagogue.
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Shabbat Bo: Exodus
10:1-13:16• Jeremiah
46:13-28.
T
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