Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of tefillin, leather boxes and straps used in prayer by observant Jews.
Tefillin
The Latest
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Life Queer? Trans? Female? Here’s How To Find Tefillin
There are literally hundreds of different ways of choosing, wrapping, and storing a set of tefillin [phylacteries]. Eichler’s Judaica superstore offers more than 2,000 tefillin-related items for purchase online alone, from a Swarovski crystal adorned bag, to a military camouflage case, and a strangely economical set of blinged-out gold plastic storage boxes—all to compliment the…
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Letters Wearing Tefillin Is Serious — And Only Those Properly Prepared Should Don Them
There is nothing more admirable in this world than the desire to get close to God. It is an innate part of every soul to want to return to the spiritual bliss found in the Divine Presence. Luckily, that Presence also wants to draw us close. That’s why Hashem bestowed on humanity both the Written…
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News Laying Tefillin Isn’t Just For Straight Men Anymore
You can learn how to do pretty much anything on YouTube. There are tutorials for decorative fruit carving, moonwalking, building a turbo jet engine, preparing for the apocalypse and, of course, how to wrap tefillin. But when Rachel Putterman went to YouTube for instructions on how to don the ritual leather straps worn by observant…
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Life Saying Goodbye To The Torah Scribe Of Washington Heights
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. One day in the early 1990s, a red-bearded scribe walked into my small corner of the world. Rabbi Yosef Lasdun was a slender man in his thirties, dressed head to toe in the black garb of Jewish men from Washington Heights. He had traveled from his apartment…
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Fast Forward Did Brooklyn Man Lure Teen Boys With Notes In Tefillin Bags?
(JTA) — Police in New York arrested a Jewish man they say tricked at least two Jewish boys into a conversation that was inappropriate with notes in their tefillin bags. Menachem Tyk, 59, from the heavily Orthodox Borough Park park section of Brooklyn, was arraigned Thursday on charges of reckless endangerment and harassment. He allegedly put…
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News Could Tefillin Booth Propel Chicago Cubs to World Series Miracle in Game 7?
If at first you don’t succeed — wrap, wrap again. Chabad Rabbi David Kotlarsky, who offers Chicago Cubs fans the opportunity to don tefillin at a booth outside of Wrigley Field, was at it again this year, as Wrigley hosted its first three World Series games in 71 years. Kotlarsky, co-director of Chabad of East…
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News Brooklyn Man’s $2K Tefillin Set Swiped on Subway
A Jewish man’s bag that included a valuable set of tefillin, a pair of ritual boxes attached to leather straps used during prayer, was stolen in Brooklyn on Friday, September 30. The 25-year-old victim told police that his bag was taken from the mezzanine of the DeKalb Avenue subway station at 7:36 p.m., the website…
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Fast Forward Burglar Steals 3 Sets of Tefillin From University of Southern California Chabad Center
LOS ANGELES –A burglar targeted the Rohr Chabad Jewish Student Center at the University of Southern California, making off with three sets of tefillin, two computers, a video projector and other valuables. The burglar, whose image was caught on a security camera, entered the Chabad house, located near the USC campus in central Los Angeles,…
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