Q&A: Rabbeinu Tam Tefillin
Rabbeinu Tam Tefillin
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Is there, in your opinion, value in being careful to put on Rabbeinu Tam tefillin? The halakhic decisors have already written that nowadays this practice has become widespread, and people are no longer concerned about appearing pretentious (which the author of the Shulchan Arukh was concerned about in this context).
Do you think there is reason to be stringent here out of concern that perhaps the order is like Rabbeinu Tam, or is your view like that of the Vilna Gaon, that there is no end to such things and there are all kinds of opinions, and if there is a tradition that Rashi’s order is the correct one, that is enough for us?
Answer
It’s hard to answer. There is certainly no obligation, but there is room for the claim that someone who is stringent is not doing something foolish. There is such an opinion, and you want to fulfill your obligation according to it as well. The claim that “there is no end to it” is not a valid argument. In principle, one can take all opinions into account (like Rabbi Sheinberg regarding tzitzit), and the more, the better. There is no obligation, but one can definitely see value in it. Of course, only opinions that seem to you to have real substance. It is not enough that some opinion merely appears in print.
And here the son asks:
How do you manage with the two "And it shall be" passages? — "And it shall be, if you surely listen" is problematic because of its ending: "so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied on the land." How does that fit with the cessation of divine intervention in our time? And "And it shall be, when the Lord brings you" is problematic because of the immorality of "and if you do not redeem it, you shall break its neck"—what did the poor donkey do wrong?
Best regards,
the simple one from there 🙂