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Q&A: Can I put on tefillin without praying?

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Can I put on tefillin without praying?

Question

Hello Rabbi, can I put on tefillin by myself and without praying? I have a problem when I pray unwillingly. Repeating the prayer over and over is tiring, and I don’t feel anything from it. Is it possible to just wear the tefillin for, say, five minutes and then take them off?

Answer

Everything is possible, but then you would be fulfilling the commandment of tefillin (there is no requirement to perform the commandment of tefillin in public), while not fulfilling the commandment of prayer. And even with tefillin, it is preferable to recite the Shema and not just put them on.

Discussion on Answer

Mani (2018-05-06)

Does the Rabbi think there is an obligation to put on tefillin every day?
(In my opinion, the commandment is to wear them at every moment, but there is no source in the Talmud indicating that there is a difference between putting them on twice in one day or once every two days.)

Michi (2018-05-06)

This is an old and not simple question. At first glance, there is no source that one is obligated every day; rather, the obligation is continuous. True, the nights interrupt the days, and what remains is every day, but even that does not define it as a daily commandment, only a continuous commandment that applies during the days alone.
From this, the proof from Ulla’s statement (Berakhot 14b, ruled as Jewish law in Shulchan Arukh Orach Chayim 25:2), which requires reciting the Shema with tefillin, is also rejected (and in any case there is obviously no proof from there).
People have already discussed this, though not extensively, and my friend Rabbi Y. M. Yarvetz wrote an article about it ("Tefillin — for a remembrance before God always," HaOtzar monthly, issue 4, 5777, pp. 131–152).
The halakhic decisors do generally assume that this is a commandment for every day. See, for example, Achiezer, part 3, sec. 81, where he cites the Noda B'Yehuda that tefillin are every day (though perhaps there he means a continuous commandment applying to the days).
See also the Jerusalem Talmud (Horayot 1:3), where it says: "A prophet or an enticer can—if they tell you, ‘Do not put on tefillin today; put them on tomorrow’—you might think you should listen to them; therefore Scripture says, ‘to walk in them’—in all of them, not in only some of them. Thus you have uprooted the entire day’s obligation." The baraita expounds that only if a false prophet or enticer asks people to violate an entire commandment are they liable to death, and as an example it brings neglecting one day of tefillin. This implies that each day is a separate commandment, and neglecting one day counts as neglecting a commandment. But that too can be rejected in the same way.

 

In any case, all this is just for dialectical analysis. As a matter of Jewish law, the accepted view is that there is an obligation to put them on every day (even if that is by force of the continuous commandment).

Mani (2018-05-06)

I enjoyed your answer and the reference.
Thank you very much.
May you continue to magnify and glorify Torah for many good years, with health, wellbeing, and satisfaction.

Michi (2018-05-06)

Thank you.

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