Q&A: Tefillin Every Day and More
Tefillin Every Day and More
Question
Hello Rabbi Michi. I’ve accumulated a few questions, and I’m putting them all here together even though there isn’t really any connection between them.
1. Is a person obligated / required / recommended to put on tefillin every day?
2. Is there an issue of “bearing false witness” when reciting the Shema without tefillin if one plans to put on tefillin after the prayer?
3. Does wake-up time for purposes of reciting the Shema change according to the times? Or is it still fixed today as 3 proportional hours? And if so, is it possible that the time for prayer would be earlier than the time for Shema (since the determination of the time for prayer is rabbinic, and that is how they instituted it)?
4. Regarding beautifying a commandment beyond one-third: the Rabbi explained in “Toto"d” why this does not apply to increasing the number of Hanukkah candles. Can one nevertheless say that there is no room to beautify the commandment by using olive oil if it is much more expensive than a wax candle? And likewise, should one not light candles for more than 40 minutes (which is one-third more than half an hour)?
5. For those who follow Rabbi Chaim Naeh’s measurements, may one recite a blessing over separating challah according to his measure, or must one take the Chazon Ish into account because of the rule of refraining from blessings in cases of doubt? And is there a difference between someone who studied the topic and concluded in favor of Rabbi Naeh’s view, and someone who follows his view only on the basis of custom?
Thank you very much!
Answer
1. That is the accepted practice, although the source is not clear.
2. That is what the Talmud says in Berakhot 14. One can question that reasoning, but what matters is that the Talmud instructs us to do it with tefillin. So regardless of the rationale, this is a halakhic instruction (at least that is the accepted way to understand it).
3. Possibly. I was asked about this some time ago, and I answered that I have no clear way to change the time in light of changing circumstances (the question is whether “princes” is a sign or a cause).
4. In all beautifications of the commandment that are not part of the laws of “those who beautify” and “those who beautify in the highest way” — meaning anything not related to the number of candles — the beautification is subject to the ordinary parameters of beautifying a commandment.
5. Someone who studied the issue will certainly act according to the conclusion he reached. Someone who did not study it can follow custom, or in the absence of a custom, be stringent out of doubt.
Discussion on Answer
A few comments.
I previously brought here an article by my friend Rabbi Yitzhak Meir Yavetz that dealt with the law of tefillin every day.
1. The Sefer Mitzvot Gadol is not a source in the essential sense. It cites a Talmudic text.
2. Also, in Berakhot 14 it says that one who recites Shema without tefillin is like bearing false witness, and from there too it emerges that we are talking about every day.
3. The question of what the halakhic source is for their being obligatory every day is not clear to me. The Talmudic statement he cites there does not look like an actually halakhic statement. Certainly the enumerators of the commandments did not count four commandments here. But perhaps, as an incidental remark, one really does see here that it is every day.
4. The quip about a clean body meaning free of sins, and the additional quip that people did not wear tefillin in the time of the medieval authorities (Tosafot on Shabbat 49 wrote that the commandment had grown weak, but no such far-reaching conclusion can be inferred from that) — these are quips. Surely somebody made a living from this somewhere along the way (a doctorate). In the plain sense, it means a physically clean body, as is proven by the concern that one might pass gas while wearing them, which is why it is forbidden to sleep with tefillin. And the explanation is that this is like saying a sacred utterance, which requires a clean body. As for wearing them every day, see points 1–2.
“Haredi in His World” already did the work for me and brought the sources. From them it seems that this was not just a quip at all:
https://bshch.blogspot.com/2021/08/blog-post_4006.html
And in fact the matter is stated explicitly at length in the Sefer Mitzvot Gadol in that commandment, from which it emerges that this was the prevalent reasoning with which he argued.
Really not convincing. “A weakened commandment” is a vague concept. The question is also in which communities. From when did it begin? In short, a quip.
The Sefer HaChinukh explains explicitly that this was the reasoning of those who said not to put on tefillin:
“As they said (Shabbat 49a) that tefillin require a clean body, and the Talmud says, what is a clean body? That one should take care not to pass gas while wearing them. But the matter is not to say that they require a body clean of sins or of impurity, for every person, even one who is impure and one who has sinned, is obligated in the commandment of tefillin, provided that he knows how to take care not to pass gas while wearing them. And perhaps through his persistence in the commandment of tefillin, which are a great reminder to a person in the service of Heaven, he will turn back from his evil way and purify himself from all his defilements. And our sages, of blessed memory (Sukkah 42a), obligated us in the commandment of tefillin to educate even small boys in it as soon as they reach the point of knowing how to guard them. From this one should understand that the view of our sages, of blessed memory, was that every person should hold fast to this commandment and be accustomed to it, for it is a great principle and a strong protection from sins, and a sturdy ladder by which to ascend and enter the service of the Creator, blessed be He. And those who are stringent about the sanctity of the commandment and discourage the masses from engaging in it, perhaps their intention is for the good, but in truth this causes people to neglect many commandments, and that is a great evil.”
The source for the obligation to put on tefillin every day is found in the Sefer Mitzvot Gadol, positive commandment 3:
“Our rabbis further said in tractate Menachot (44a): Whoever does not put on tefillin transgresses eight positive commandments every day, for there are four passages there, and in each one there is a positive commandment of the arm-tefillin and a positive commandment of the head-tefillin.”
In practice, the Sefer Mitzvot Gadol instituted wearing tefillin at prayer time for all the Jewish people, since in the period of the medieval authorities (Rishonim) they thought that “a clean body” meant a body clean of sins, and therefore only pious people and men of deeds used to wear tefillin, and some of them only during the Ten Days of Repentance after the penitential prayers.