OBJECTS OF JEWISH CEEEMONIAL. 551 



'• 



werp in o338 A. M. (1573 A, D.). The Hebrew text is unpointed. 

 Bound in leather, with g-ilt edge. Meusurenient.s, 7 inches long, 4f 

 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. (U.S.N.M. No. 1292.) 



21. Phylacteries {f^^fH In).— (Plate 10, fig. 2, and Plate 11, fig. 1, 

 U.S.N.M. No. 154583.) The phylacteries, or tefillm, are two square 

 boxes of parchment. The boxes are fastened to a kind of a base made 

 of thick parchment with a loop on one side, so as to let a narrow 

 leather strap pass through (Plate 10, fig. 1). Into those boxes are 

 inserted the following passages from the Pentateuch, written on strips 

 of parchment: Exodus xiii, 1-10; Exodus xiii, 11-16; Deuteronomy 

 vi, 4r-9, and Deuteronomy xi, 13-21. By means of the straps the 

 boxes are bound around the arm and head and worn by all male Jews 

 who have attained religious majority— i. e., passed the thirteenth year 

 of age — during morning prayers of week days; hence their Hebrew 

 name teflUn, from tefillahj prayer. The name phylacteries is derived 

 from the Greek ^vXaKtTJpia (phylacteria), which is used in the New 

 Testament,^ meaning, properly, things that guard — i. e., amulets, 

 talismans, which the Jewish tefillin are not. The New Testament 

 name may be based upon an external resemblance between the tefillin 

 and the Greek. 2>hylacte7'ia . The obligation to wear tefiUhi is derived 

 from the command included in the extracts mentioned above: "And 

 you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand and for frontlets 

 between your eyes."" 



The tefilla for the head is embossed on two sides of the exterior with 

 the Hebrew letter \2; tililn (sh), and inside is divided into four compart- 

 ments, in each of which one of the four extracts from the Pentateuch is 

 put, and the strap is tied at such a distance as to fit the head of the 

 wearer, forming a knot shaped in the form of the Hebrew *1 daleth 

 (d). The t(filla for the hand or arm has no letter impressed on the 

 outside and no divisions inside, and the four passages it contains are 

 written continuously on one strip of parchment. One end of the strap 

 is made into a small noose, with a knot resembling the Hebrew > yod 

 (y or i). The three letters thus exhibited on the outside of the tefillin 

 constitute the Hebrew name of God "i^Xi/ Shaddai., rendered by the 

 English versions: "Almighty."^ The materials used in making the 

 tefiUln must come from a clean animal, and the extracts from the Pen - 

 tateuch are written in the same manner as the Torah scroll. (See 

 under 1, 1.) 



In "laying the tefillin'''' {lianohath tefillin) that of the arm is put on 

 first. The box is fastened on the naked left arm above the elbow, and 

 the strap is wound seven times aroiuid the arm below the elbow. 

 Then that of the head is put on so that the box comes to rest on the 



^ Matthew xxiii, 5. 



* Deuteronomy vi, 8; xi, 18. Compare Exodus xiii, 9 and 16. 



" Genesis xvii, 1. 



