Q&A: What Did They Do with Tefillin in the Biblical Period?
What Did They Do with Tefillin in the Biblical Period?
Question
Rabbi, hello.
I have a very philosophical question!
Tefillin is a significant commandment in the life of the average religious Jew.
But we never really stopped to think what they did with them in the time of Moses, David, and so on.
That is, we put them on and recite the Shema,
but 2,500 years ago there were not three daily prayers. It is not clear what they did with tefillin. Was this some kind of amulet that was added to the Jewish people in the ancient period, and the Sages in the Second Temple period gave it the status of an actual commandment?
Answer
I did not understand the question. Even today tefillin are not put on three times a day. On the contrary, there were periods and there were people who apparently went around wearing tefillin all day, regardless of prayers, and nowadays this has been reduced to the morning prayer.
What does this have to do with an amulet that was adopted over the generations? This is a Torah commandment: "And they shall be as frontlets between your eyes."