Tools, Tools Tools...

Where to start?

Tool #1

I am not sure where I got the idea that it may be attractive to work with tefillin, but I did get the idea within the last 2 years. Near a year ago, I acquired my own set. After local advice, and a review of “net” options, I did purchase my set from one of the two stores in Wheaton, after having looked at the offerings in both stores. If you decide to do this, too, you’ll learn that there are different grades of tefillin. Deciding what “grade” involved assessing information that was somewhat disparate. That is…where sets of information agree, you can have an easier time. It was not that easy in this case. For example…there are typically 3 grades: peshutim, dakkot, and gassot. If I heard the presentation correctly from the folks who “present” about this from their “world wide wrap” movement in the Conservative movement, they directed you to peshutim, or bust. Reviewing other authority, they may suggest only dakkot and gassot are reliably kosher…and frankly, this was from a person trained conservative, too (and actually, in their rabbinical school). In the end, when finding the shop I was willing to invest in, they showed me both grades I asked for, and demonstrated to me that the materials in one might be more favorable to wear, so I selected it. But, any of the three would seem to be viable, for any rationale you like.

I’ve now used these over this time….and more actively in the last month. It’s become effectively a
daily practice for me …more about that later.

Did I begin to consider this when my son’s bar mitzvah came
on the horizon? In any case…

As I am reminded by reviewing the earlier entry in this
blog, the idea that our Shirat HaNefesh community may be coming together to
explore using tefillin is becoming a reality…now to happen…as I understand may
be the more traditional way…just before Adam’ Bar Mitzvah, in our home, this
coming Sunday.

It is possible some of you reading this may choose to acquire a set of tefillin. So let me
expand this section one on “tools.”

In considering and preparing for today, after negotiating
with the mother figure, it was allowed we’d get tefillin for both boys. And so, I was back to shopping again. In doing so, some of the questions I had before simply returned to me. And, at
the same time, some of the answers now were different than before, when I shopped for a set of tefillin for myself.

For example, the shop where I bought these tefillin from no
longer offered the dakkot type. Though I was going to get peshutim mehedurim (superior simple ones), not having the choice for the middle type was different.

As before, they were unsure of the type of script included in the tefillin.

Type of script? OK, what’s that about.

My learning about tefillin has been connected to my shopping. When going on-line, starting by typing into google nothing but “tefillin,” you see lots of sites for shopping. One of them is aJudaica. I did end up going with them for my children’s set. Even
from the beginning, by having been exposed to their site, I learned, and have
no reason to disbelieve what they say is not the case…that included in the
tefillin, is script that may be one of really several types, but is probably
primarily beit ari or yosef. Now, like buying a car, you might not expect a sales person to be a mechanic, and, for that matter, you might not, as a consumer, be necessarily concerned for what’s under the hood. Likewise, with tefillin, maybe you need not care about these things.
But, the aJudaica site had taken some trouble to give readers some
background, and in the same way that the fact of ashkenazy and sefardic
traditions are well recognized in Judaism, similarly, these 2 scripts are
variously used, not so much to separate these two traditions…but….well…the ari
apparently are associated with more Hasidic and kabbalistically oriented
communities. So, it’s a choice you either make or take, depending on what you get.

And…what you get at the local store is not entirely clear.

When initially going to the Jewish bookstore…or even before
that, I reach Menachem on the phone, and he assured me that they have lots of
levels there, consistent with them being a family of scribes. When arriving, another gentleman does take care of me. I ask about script type, he indicates these are not done in house…the sets that they have there…and he does not know what type they are. Later, I
had gone with the boys to Eli Chai on University, and he says he is not sure,
but thinks they are Ari, but from his description, I’m not sure that he doesn’t
mis-attribute what he thinks for bet yosef. Neither store spoke to me about winding types. At aJudaica, you choose which way you wind, and clearly enough, there are different traditions for winding, whether towards you or away from you. Although some
will tell you Ashkenazi is towards, and sephardi is away, if you actually
search this on the net, I found maybe 50% identifying just the opposite.

Again, there may be a question of … does this matter? Winding type, script type?

So…now let me tell you about diamonds. I’ll try to make this brief.
About 7 years ago, my wife lost the diamond she had in the
engagement ring I gave her. I sought to replace it, and as a person alive today and then who knew to use google, I learned that I had options for shopping.
I discovered in the process a website called Pricescope, and
found there not only an educational forum, but a place to be involved in
writing threads both about diamonds and my life, and I have in excess of 5000
posts from my time there, though truth be told my major investment there was in
the first 9 months on-line.

Generally, though, there were lessons learned in shopping
for diamonds. For diamonds, and for tefillin,
it seems that it is often the case that you have choices and by the way cost
savings that are available on the internet, that are not available from a local
vendor. Partly, it’s because you have a
national, or in the case of tefillin, an international market, and one not
depending on gas in your car to get you there.
In the case of diamonds, you also have knowledge
deficiencies at the vendor that are remedied on-line. With tefillin…I’m just too new a
shopper. But..you’re getting the idea.

Now, having acquired tefillin marked for winding towards
you, I do see they are knotted differently than the set at the store. So, the choices you can make seem to be realized in fact.

Do these things, again, matter. They are at least nominal differences. If they are qualitative will depend on the value you may place on the differences.

So, as a long way around defining “tool” #1, I would offer
that the internet offers a tool for shopping, that provides options beyond a
local vendor for acquiring tefillin.

Tool #2

Are there other reasons to shop locally?

In the case of diamonds, one reason people are drawn to do
so is for concern for servicing. Are prongs tightened? In the case of my wife’s
first diamond, it did fall out. We never had it tightened. We did get the new
engagement ring at an internet vendor who happens to also be local, in Frederick. But, we never go there, and frankly, this is a problem.

Is servicing an issue with tefillin?

Early, in using my tefillin, I experienced (maybe because I
read about the option for winding choices at aJudaica), the need to “turn” my
tefillin to tie them around my arm. I called the store, and the guy says…yeah, you need to turn it. So…I am not experiencing the need to go back to have them retied, based on this conversation.

Later, for my boys, I do shop with aJudaica. I find that the set for my lefty son has a
head loop that seems to be tied too tight.
I write to aJudaica, asking if they have advice. They give me traditional advice, and also,
suggest I can send them back to have them fixed. So, no, they do not help.

But…

Google! I googled like: “how to tie and until knots in tefillin,” it churned…and delivered to me
a) a site, written by the creator of tefillin Barbie, and b) who included links
to a rabbi’s site with wonderful videos describing detailed strategies for
adjusting the knots.

Bottom line…in this case…with respect to tool #2…I was able,
so far…to make the loop adjust fine, thank you very much, with some effective
and efficient education under my belt. The internet can be amazing. The
vendor didn’t help too much, but I was able to self help, thanks to this
combination of tools including google, and youtube, and again, the internet.

Tool #3

Well, this is the main point, I think.

In the last month, I’ve established a daily practice.

I’m not altogether sure what’s kicked in for me. I have had these tefillin for the better part
of a year. But, as its evolved, my practice is unlike any I’ve had for several decades. In some part, I attribute it to these tools…these tefillin.

They are boxes. They have text in them. They have meaning for me. But, none of these things, taken by themselves, represents the answer.

As I have shared with my Buddhist friends, it would be
inappropriate not to share that the meaning of “binding,” to me, stretches….reaches across traditions here.

In Buddhism, the tradition is that you “bind” yourself to your guru through “samaya,” and to my general sense of things, with tefillin,
similarly, you are binding yourself in your life, to your life, yourself, with
these.

They are live toys. For now, for me, they seem to be a successful part of my process.

In Judaism, we don’t like the Christian’s enthusiasm for Israel,
understanding that their theology usurps the reality of our “state” in ways
unintended by us, for what could be an accidental common purpose.

I might think there would be some that would attribute my
practice of using tefillin in a similar light, imagining that what I’m doing
with them is swell, but not hitting the mark.

I hope such folks are wrong, objectively. I think so.

I can understand that some people will wear tefillin, and
describe their adoption as consistent with the instruction that we are
commanded to wear them daily. That is
not my view, but I don’t think there is a necessary disconnect between those
that will have this view, and those that have my view.

Also, I think our siddur author agrees with this view.

Additionally, some people say that there are two kinds of
people…those that see things in two kinds of ways, and those that don’t.

For myself, having recently, from watching “Glee” with my
family, I have taken some delight in understanding that my practice of Judaism
and Buddhism represents some sort of “mashup.”

But, the main thing here, which I’ve given an acronym, is:
nmoam or pronounced: noam, being:
Not much of a mashup

There’s not much of a mashup, because the practices are not
so different that such is needed.

Anyway, thank you for reviewing these notes. Maybe, if you’re reading, and are a
SharatHaNefesh-nick, I’ll see you wearing tefillin in April, as services continue on weekdays. I think that practice is to be determined.

All the best,

Ira Z.