Christ Lutheran Church: Welcome

The Teffelin - June 1, 2008

The Teffelin

Deuteronomy 11:18-23.  Matthew 7:21-23

June 1, 2008

Rev. Dave R. Garwick

The text for my sermon is the Bible Focus that was read at the very beginning of the service where God told the people through Moses, "Fix these words of Mine in your hearts and minds;  tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads,"  Deuteronomy 11:18-19.

When I hear these words, I remember the trip that I took to Israel in 2001, not long before 9-11.  We flew from New York on a huge overseas El Al flight - which is to say, a "kosher" flight.  There were maybe four hundred and thirty passengers on board and all except those in our tour group were Jewish.  Most of them were ultra-orthodox Jews called Lubavitcher Hassadim.  They wore the long black coats and the broad brimmed black hats with the long curly side burns and long heavy beards.  And just as the El Al airline brochure promised us, we experienced their culture to the max all that night long.  These men grouped together and walked back and forth and back and forth all night long in very animated debates and discussions about what the Scriptures meant.  This went on all night long.  You could hardly use any of the restrooms because of these large groups standing there.

After about thirteen hours of this some of us just began to doze off.  Precisely at that moment some fella walks right up in front of me and raises the window shade...because the sun is just beginning to rise.  Then he takes out this long, long leather strap and wraps it around and around and around his arm, all the while rocking back and forth and mumbling something. Then he takes out another strip and wraps it around his head and keeps up this rocking and mumbling.

What he was doing was this morning's Bible Focus.  He was fixing God's words as symbols on his hands and binding them on his forehead.  Literally!  He was doing something that some Jews have done for hundreds and hundreds of years.  This is something that some Jews have done for hundreds and hundreds of years.  This is something that every observant male is expected to do every single morning except the Sabbath and special holidays.

He was using two long leather straps with something like a matchbox attached to each one.  These two sets are called "teffelin".  One of these he wrapped around his forehead.  Literally!  He was doing something that some Jews have done for hundreds and hundreds of years.  This is something that every observant male is expected to do every single morning except the Sabbath and special holidays.

He was using two long leather straps with something like a matchbox attached to each one.  These two sets are called ""teffelin"".  One of these he wrapped around his forearm - this one is called the "shel yad".  The other one, called the "shel roash", he tied around his forehead.  Inside each box is a long strip of parchment that is handwritten with the words of this morning's Bible Focus and the verse of the three other passages that make this same command - a total of twenty eight verses.  Because these are all written by hand, a set of these teffelin are very expensive costing several hundred dollars!

A lot of people call these devices "phylacteries" because that comes from the Greek word which means "magical charm" which some outsiders mistakenly thought these were.  But these are called teffelin because that means "prayer".  There are very specific ways that these straps are wrapped and tied with different prayers said at different stages of the process.

For example, after the arm strap is wrapped seven times - once for each day of creation and the Sabbath rest - the person is to recite this prayer:  "Blessed are You Hashem, King of the universe, Who has made us holy through His commandments, and commanded us to put on teffelin".

And then, after the head piece is in place, this prayer is said:
"Blessed is His name, Whose glorious kingdom is forever and ever,
From Your Wisdom you, O supreme God, may you imbue me; From your understanding give me understanding; with your kindness do greatly with me; with your power cut down my foes and rebels.  May you pour goodly oil upon the seven arms of the menorah, to cause your good to flow to your creatures.  May you open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing."

Now this complicated system was how the Pharisees tried to make sure that they kept God's commands.  The Sadducees didn't go to these lengths.  The Sadducees were more apt to interpret God's words figuratively.  For example, they did not believe in an actual life after death, so they were "sad, you see."  The Pharisees believed in a literal life after death so the were "fair, you see".  Likewise they took the command about fixing God's Word on the arm and the forehead in a very literal way too.

Long ago, the faithful did not have their own Bibles.  The teffelin may have been the closest a person would have gotten to having any part of Scripture.  Today God has blessed us so that every single one of us can possess not just a couple strips of verses, but one or several copies of the entire Bible itself!

We do not have to literally tie pieces of the Bible to our bodies like Pharisees.  But do we still take God's Word as seriously, as preciously as did the Pharisees?  In the Gospel Lesson we just read, Jesus said that not everybody who claims to be a Christian will get into heaven - but only those who "do the will of My Father?"  How can we even KNOW what God's will is unless we fix His words on our hearts and take His Word as seriously as those who bind it to their bodies?  That is why we have Adult Education between the services during the year.

May WE take God's Word so seriously that we bind it to our hearts, not with straps of leather, but with lives of devotion and study and obedience.  Amen, May it be so.