One of the symbols we haven’t spoken much about but is well known is the tefillin. It consists of two leather boxes attached one to the upper left arm and one on the forehead. They are black in color and the frontlet box is made up of two boxes attached to each other, made of leather, no larger than three and a half centimeters in size, and sewn together in a cube with exactly twelve stitches. Actually it is preferred if they are made of only one piece of leather, which must be from a kosher animal. The one on the arm is made up of only one box. These cubes contain four small pieces of parchment on which are written four portions of theTorah.

The tefillin on the arm contains only one parchment with all four passages written on it. The frontlet has the same passages written on four different pieces which are then inserted into specific compartments within the box itself. The frontlet is placed on the head and positioned on the hairline. The tefillin is worn when saying your morning prayers and is required of every Israelite male after the age of bar mitzvah. There is also a black leather strap attached to these boxes that is to be wound around your arm exactly seven times. It is also wound around your middle finger three times. Notice that we have three there for divinty and seven for a complete work. When completed it will make the shape of the Hebrew letter Shin on the hand. The four scriptures that are in these boxes are the following: Deu 6:4-9 Deu:11 13-21 Ex 13:1-10 Ex:13 11-16. There are a lot of obligations in the wearing of tefillin, but anything that might create a closer bond with YHVH should get you “tefillin” better. Therefore, it must be good!