Tag Archives: Tefillin

Tefillin: Past, Present, and Future

Vestments of the regular priest and the High Priest (Courtesy: Temple Institute)

This week’s parasha, Pekudei, summarizes all the components and items of the Mishkan. In the second aliyah, we read about the special ephod and choshen, the apron and breastplate of the kohen gadol. The choshen was studded with precious stones engraved with the names of the Tribes of Israel. Behind the choshen were placed the mysterious urim v’tumim. Through these, the Israelites were able to communicate with God. According to one understanding, the Israelites could ask questions, and God would respond by making the letters engraved on the stones light up.

The Zohar (II, 230a-b) on this week’s parasha connects the ephod, choshen, and urim v’tumim with tefillin. This is the secret of when God showed Moses “His back” but not “His face” (Exodus 33:23). On this, the Sages metaphorically state that God showed Moses the knot on the back of His tefillin (Berakhot 7a). Obviously, God does not literally wear tefillin, so the Zohar explains that it really serves to teach us the power of tefillin: Like the ephod, choshen, and urim v’tumim through which the Israelites could divine both past and future, tefillin can give a Jew the same power. The tefillin box that is on the front of the head is likened to the choshen on the front of the kohen, and represents looking ahead into the future. Meanwhile, the knot of the tefillin at the back (in the shape of a letter dalet) corresponds to the ephod covering the back of the kohen, representing the ability to understand the past. (The Zohar adds that the box on the front represents aspaklaria nahara, a “clear lens”, whereas the knot on the back is a murky lens.)

One explanation from our Sages about Moses being shown God’s “back” is that God showed him all of human history up to that point, so that Moses could see how God acted justly and righteously throughout. Everything that happened was brought about by God for a good reason, measure-for-measure. However, the reasons for future events, God’s “face”, were not revealed to Moses. This ties in to another teaching where Moses asked to see Rabbi Akiva and, while God granted him this request and transported Moses into Rabbi Akiva’s classroom, God did not reveal why Rabbi Akiva had to suffer a gruesome death (see ‘Time Travel in the Torah’).

A different explanation is that showing His “back” meant that God revealed to Moses everything from Creation forward (see Malbim on Exodus 33:23). What happened before Creation, God’s “face”, could not be revealed, for no human mind could possibly grasp this and live (Exodus 33:20). This implies that only after death, when the soul is no longer hindered by the body, could it grasp what happened before Creation. Our Sages taught that Moses attained 49 of the 50 Gates of Understanding, Nun Sha’arei Binah, while alive (see Rosh Hashanah 21b or Nedarim 38a). Only following death could he reach the 50th Gate. This is why Moses died on Mount Nebo (נבו), nun-bo, hinting that he finally had all nun levels of understanding “within him”, bo.

A four-pronged Shin on the head tefillin.

Putting it all together, we can see how the head tefillin gives us access to all Fifty Gates of Binah. There is a nice allusion to this in the two letters shin embossed on the box, one mysteriously having four prongs instead of three. The three prongs of a regular shin correspond to the Sefirot of Chessed, Gevurah, and Tiferet (see Sha’ar haPesukim on Shemot). The four prongs of the special shin are the remaining Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malkhut. This gives us all seven lower Sefirot from which the 50 Gates are derived: seven times seven (as we do during Sefirat haOmer), plus the fiftieth being Binah above. It is worth noting that elsewhere (III, 254a-b), the Zohar connects the seven prongs of the two tefillin shins—which are shaped like fire—to the seven branches of the Menorah.

We see that the head tefillin is associated specifically with vision. Fittingly, the knot on the back aligns right with the occipital lobe of the brain, which is the visual processing centre. Meanwhile, the box of the tefillin “between the eyes” alludes to the inner “third eye” of the brain, the pineal gland, which bizarrely has photoreceptors like our eyes despite being deep inside the brain. The pineal gland regulates our sleep cycle and makes us dream, releasing a neurotransmitter called DMT which opens the mind up to all kinds of spiritual visions. (DMT is the active ingredient in Ayahuasca and used as both a therapeutic plant medicine and psychedelic drug. For more on the inner third eye in Judaism, see here.)

Based on the above, we can further understand why the Zohar says the box of the head tefillin represents clear vision while the knot at the back represents murky vision: the box (aligning with the pineal) is for tuning in to higher vision and prophecy, for spiritual vision; the knot at the back (aligning with the occipital lobe) is for regular physical vision. And this helps to explain why the box is associated with the future, while the knot is associated with the past. To get glimpses of what’s to come, we have to tap into our inner prophetic eye. But using our physical eyes we have the ability to look back in history and see God’s fingerprints all over the place. As Moses himself advised the people, if you want to find God, just “Remember the days of old, understand past generations…” (Deuteronomy 32:7) Jewish history—millennia of survival against all odds, and inexplicable success, influence, and prosperity at the same time—is perhaps the greatest proof for God’s existence. “Inquire now to the earliest days that came before you, from the day God created man on Earth, and from one end of Heaven to the other, has there ever been such a great thing? Or has anything like this ever been known?” (Deuteronomy 4:32)

So, the head tefillin takes care of past and future. And what of the present? For that we have the arm tefillin, bound specifically to the arm as a sign of action in the here and now, in this world of Asiyah. The arm tefillin is the present. In this way, our tefillin contain past, present, and future. Recall that the knot on the arm tefillin is in the shape of a letter yud, so altogether we have the shin on the head box, the dalet on the head knot, and the yud on the arm knot, spelling “Shaddai”. This is perfect because the divine name Shaddai embodies God’s presence throughout cyclical time—past, present, and future—and the value of “Shaddai” (שדי) is precisely 314, equal to the 3.14 of cyclical π (see here for more on ‘Secrets of Pi’). With this we come full circle, and get another reason for wrapping tefillin in circular fashion, around our heads, down our arms, hands, and fingers—the “Eternal Jew” binding past, present, and future into one.

Judaism vs. Hinduism

Are Hindus spiritual descendants of the Biblical Abraham? Find out in this class where we explore the many things that Judaism and Hinduism have in common, how our histories have been intertwined for millennia, and why India and Israel are natural allies on the global stage. Also discussed: Are there Lost Tribes of Israel in India? How does Judaism view reincarnation? What are the mystical 72 Names of God? And who was the Talmud’s mysterious Rabbi Yehuda the Hindu?

For more, see ‘Holy Cow: Parallels Between Judaism and Hinduism’.

For more on the Third Eye in Judaism, please see here.

For the incredible life of Mirra Alfassa, see here, and for an amazing Jewish story with Swami Vijayananda, here.

Abraham and the State of Israel

This week’s parasha, Lech Lecha, begins in the year 2023—of the Hebrew calendar, that is. In traditional Jewish chronology, Abraham was born in the year 1948 AM (Anno Mundi, or “world year”). At the start of the parasha, we are told that Abraham was 75 years old when he settled in the Holy Land, meaning it was 2023 AM. Many have pointed out the intriguing “coincidence” that the forefather of the Jewish people and the first to settle in Israel was born in the same numerical year as was born the State of Israel and the Jewish people’s return to independence in the Holy Land in 1948 CE. More amazingly, we find that key dates in the life of Abraham align with key dates for the State of Israel, all the way up to the present situation that we find ourselves in today.

‘Abraham Journeying to the Land of Canaan’, by Gustav Doré

The Torah has very little to say about Abraham’s early life. In fact, all it tells us is that he was born, got married, and left Ur-Kasdim. The Torah then jumps ahead to his 75th birthday. What happened in the first half of Abraham’s life? Rabbinic tradition fills in a lot of the details, including that he was imprisoned for ten years! (Bava Batra 91a) At the end of that decade came the most notable event of Abraham’s early life: He was brought before the king and commanded to abandon monotheism and worship idols. Abraham refused, and was thrown into a fiery furnace. God miraculously saved him—marking the first time God openly revealed Himself to Abraham. Immediately after this, Abraham left Ur to settle in Haran. This event happened when Abraham was 52 years old, in the year 2000 AM. It launched what the Talmud calls “the Era of Torah”, lasting 2000 years until 4000 AM. (The first 2000 years of history, starting from Adam, were called “the Era of Chaos”.)

We find a similar monumental shift for the State of Israel in the year 2000 CE. A few key things happened then. In May of 2000, the IDF withdrew from southern Lebanon, where they had been stationed since 1982. This allowed for Hezbollah’s subsequent takeover of the region. (Just a few months later, Hezbollah terrorists launched a cross-border raid and abducted three Israeli soldiers.) In July of 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak headed to Washington for the Camp David Summit with Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat. Barak offered Arafat just about everything he wanted, including all of Gaza and over 95% of the West Bank, with land transfers to make up for the other parts. Arafat notoriously walked away from the table without offering any explanation why, then launched the Second Intifada. A peaceful resolution to the conflict was not in the interest of the corrupt Palestinian leadership.

These events were the nail in the coffin for the Oslo Accords, and proved that the Palestinian leadership didn’t care for any two-state solution. Their goals were obvious: the destruction of the State of Israel and the takeover of the entire region “from the River to the Sea”. The peace process had always been a ruse. That year, 2000, officially marked the death of the peace process, and wiped away the possibility for a two-state solution. The majority of the Israeli population woke up to realize that peace had only been a dream. Since then, Israeli society has noticeably and understandably shifted right-ward. More broadly, the years that followed saw a religious revival in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world, with a large and global baal teshuva movement reminiscent of Abraham’s “Era of Torah”. Thus, just as the year 2000 AM marked a great shift in the life of Abraham, the year 2000 CE marked a great shift in the life of the State of Israel and Jews worldwide. The parallels don’t end there.

After 23 years living in Haran, God commanded Abraham to finally settle in the Promised Land. However, Abraham was confronted with a difficult reality upon arrival. There were hostile Canaanites in the land (Genesis 12:6), as well as rampant famine (12:10), forcing Abraham to head south to Egypt. There, his wife Sarah was abducted. After returning to the Holy Land, Abraham settled between Beit El and Ai. He finally found prosperity, but this led to quarrels within the family, particularly with his nephew Lot. And so, we find that in 2023 AM, Abraham experienced economic difficulties, hostile neighbours, abductions of family members, and internecine brotherly conflict, much like the people of Israel have experienced in 2023 CE.

Some years later, a war came to the Holy Land, with the Sodomite confederation of five cities falling to an alliance of four Mesopotamian kings. Many of the Sodomites were taken captive, including Lot. Abraham went to war and rescued them. When the Sodomite king offered Abraham riches as a reward, Abraham refused and said he wouldn’t take even a “thread or shoe strap”. The Talmud (Sotah 17a) states that in the merit of this, Abraham’s descendants were gifted the mitzvot of tzitzit (the threads) and tefillin (the leather straps). Both contain immense spiritual power, and are said to confer protection to Jewish warriors. It is therefore fitting that there has been an immense desire for IDF soldiers to get tzitzit, and volunteers have tied over 60,000 shirts so far. Meanwhile, Jews around the world are newly inspired to lay tefillin, and over 2300 have already signed up to receive a free pair.

Right after the War of the Kings, God appeared to Abraham and Abraham complained that he was still without a child (Genesis 14). God allayed his concerns and told him he will indeed have much progeny. Right after this comes the account of the birth of Ishmael, forefather of all Arabs and, by extension, all Muslims. Ishmael was born when Abraham was 86 years old, in the year 2034 AM. Ishmael would go on to cause a lot of trouble, but our Sages say that he did ultimately repent and died a righteous man (see Rashi on Genesis 25:17).

What does all of this mean for us, as we look ahead to the next decade? Will things get worse before they get better? Will there be a larger, long-lasting regional war as in the days of Abraham? And will, at the end of it, the House of Ishmael experience a “rebirth” and find righteousness like their ancestor? Perhaps then we can finally have peace.

In the Torah’s chronology, the long-awaited Isaac would be born when Abraham was 100, in the year 2048 AM. And our Sages teach that Itzchak (יצחק) is ketz chai (קץ חי), symbolic of life at the End of Days. Isaac is the only forefather who dwelled securely in the Holy Land and never had to leave. He enjoyed me’ah she’arim, hundred-fold prosperity. The Zohar (I, 137a, Midrash haNe’elam) compares his “return” following the Akedah at age 40 to a “resurrection” of sorts, and sees this as a sign of the final Resurrection of the Dead, to come forty years into the Messianic Age. Based on the Abraham-Israel connection and the pattern outlined above, the Torah years of 2034 AM, 2048 AM, and 2088 AM might offer us hope to expect events of great significance to come in 2034 CE, 2048 CE, and 2088 CE.

As for the present, the Zohar (I, 83b) says that when Abraham entered the Holy Land at age 75, in the year 2023 AM, he received a brand new nefesh. It was like he became a totally new person. Then, when he went south (before going to Egypt) he received a new ruach, the second and higher soul. It was only years later, after returning from Egypt, parting from Lot, and becoming even more prominent—right before the onset of the War of the Kings—that Abraham received the lofty neshamah, at the moment when “he built an altar to God” (Genesis 13:18). For the State of Israel, too, 2023 CE will undoubtedly be the year that it received a brand new nefesh. In light of what has happened in recent weeks, the country will never be the same again, nor will its people. And following the model set by Abraham, the next decade will surely transform the country as it receives a new ruach, too, and eventually its true divine neshamah. We hope it will then become the proper holy kingdom of God that the State of Israel was always meant to be.