"Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our Elohim (God), Yahweh is echad (one)! ou shall love Yahweh your Elohim (God) with all your lev (heart), with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your lev (heart). You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates" (Deut.6:4-9, NKJV).

"And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your Elohim (God) and serve Him with all your lev (heart) and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.' Take heed to yourselves, lest your lev (heart) be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other elohim (gods) and worship them, lest Yahweh's anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which Yahweh is giving you. Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your lev (heart) and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth" (Deut.11:13-21, NKJV).

Popular Jewish myth has it that the Karaites, and the Sadducees before them, interpreted the words "and they shall be for Totafot between your eyes" literally and as a result wore Tefillin (Phylacteries) right above their noses. One version of the story claims that the Sadducees were wiped out because of this practice. The legend goes that they kept bumping into walls and since their Tefillin were between their eyes (instead of on their foreheads) their noses were sent shattering into their brains, killing them instantly. The Karaites and other deniers of the 'Oral Law' are portrayed as bumbling idiots who through their foolish practices wiped themselves out. The message of this story is that it is impossible to live (literally) as a Karaite and therefore we need the 'Oral Law' to save us from this savage extinction.

The problem with this myth is that it is simply untrue. It assumes that the Karaites and Sadducees interpret the verse "and they shall be for Totafot between your eyes" as referring to Rabbinic Phylacteries. However, in reality the Karaites and Sadducees never wore Tefillin at all, let alone between their eyes because this is simply not what the verse is talking about. One Rabbinite polemicist asked: 'How can you Karaites know how to make Tefillin without all the specifications laid down in the 'Oral Law"?'. Well the answer, of course, is that they do not because the 'Oral Torah' made the whole thing up.

The phrase which allegedly commands the donning of Tefillin appears four times in the Torah (Ex 13,9; Ex 13,16; Dt 6,8-9; Dt 11,18). It should be noted that the difficult word Totafot which the Rabbis arbitrarily interpret to mean Tefillin, actually means 'Remembrance'. This is clear from Exodus 13:9 (one of the four Tefillin passages) which substitutes the word Totafot with the equivalent but more familiar Zicharon ('Remembrance').

Upon closer examination it becomes clear that this phrase is a figure of speech and not a mitzvah (commandment) at all. The brilliant Rabbanite commentator Rashbam (Rashi's grandson) was wise enough to realise the true meaning of this expression. Commenting on the verse "And it shall be for a sign upon your hand and a remembrance (Zicharon) between your eyes" he writes:

"'For a sign upon your hand' According to its plain meaning (Omek Peshuto), 'It shall be remembered always AS IF it had been written upon your hand' SIMILAR TO 'he put me as a seal upon your heart' (Cant.8:6). 'Between your eyes', LIKE a piece of jewelry or gold chain which people put on the forehead for decoration" (Rashbam on Ex.13:9).

"And you shall circumcise the foreskin of your lev (heart)" (Dt.10:16).

"Listen my son to the teaching of your father and do not abandon the Torah of your mother; because it is a beautiful wreath for your head and a necklace upon your throat" (Prov.1:8-9).

"Do net let emet (truth) and righteousness leave you; tie them upon your throat, write them upon the tablet of your lev (heart)" (Prov.3:3)

"Keep my son the Mitzvot (Commandments) of your father and do not abandon the Torah of your mother; Tie them upon your lev (heart) always, don them upon your throat" (Prov.6:20-21).

"And let these things which I command you today be upon your lev (heart) ... and you shall tie them for a sign upon your hand and for a remembrance (Totafot) between your eyes and write them upon the doorposts of your houses and your gates" (Dt.6:8-9).

To be consistent, Jews and Messianics who insist on interpreting today's passages literally must also tie phylacteries on their throats and levim (hearts) as well, the latter of which would, of course, have fatal medical consequences, quite apart from the disasterous consequence of trying to literally circumcise their levim (hearts) too.

The wearing of phylacteries is therefore useless spiritually. Worse, it is a man-made Talmudic tradition that pretends to be one of the mitzvot when it absolutely is not, and is the sin of adding unlawfully to the mitzvot (commandments). This is absolutely not to be imitated by true believers.

As an interesting though serious footnote, a few years ago a messianic ministry that believes in tehillim (phylacteries) claims that Yah'shua (Jesus) appeared in one of their conferences not only wearing a Jewish kippa (skull-cap) and tallit (head-shawl) - neither of which existed in New Testament times but appeared over three centuries later - but that He also wore a 4th century Jewish phylactery on His head! They even produced a photograph of the manifestation (as evidence of their authority to 'restore' the House of Israel) as the head of their female organist transformed into this grotesque, demonic hermaphoditic 'entity' - a woman with a male head pretending to be the Jewish Messiah. Not surprisingly messianic association is very protective of a number of Talmudic customs, including the Star of Remphan in their logo, and has produced some very strange and dangerous non-Biblical teachings about marriage, the non-human physical composition of the Messiah whom they was was also a leper, and so forth.

May this serve as a dire warning not to add new mitzvot (commandments) to the Torah - ever!

Acknowledgements

[1] Karaite Korner, Tehillim