SECTION 1 - via - School of Visual Arts

When my father (of blessed memory) died, the one possession of his that I desired was his pair
of tefillin. These are two cube shaped boxes that a Jewish male is required to wear for daily
morning prayer except on the Sabbath and festivals. They contain carefully folded parchments
upon which selected Torah passages are written by hand.
Tefillin are central to weekday morning prayer. They are also a memory bank of the primal
structures, rituals, and covenant of the Jewish people. My thesis will illustrate these memory
evocations and their connection to these finely crafted sacred boxes which are miniatures in
their contents and cube-form: a microcosm of the Holy of Holies of Israel’s ancient Tabernacle
as described in Exodus beginning with Exodus: 25.
As the entire congregation of Israel was present at the fiery mount of Sinai when the “ten
words” were heard and Israel’s covenant with G-d established, so too the entire congregation in
its various ways participated in the rituals emanating from that primal covenantal encounter.
At this point it may be appropriate to mention that in ancient times women also practiced the
tefillin ritual thus underlining the concept of universal participation. 1
Israel’s covenantal moments are memorialized in the rituals and structures of the Tabernacle. 2
All the traditional rituals of Judaic worship go back to and are derived from the Tabernacle’s
rituals as codified in the Torah. At the heart of my thesis is the visual symbolic means by which
the tefillin ritual transforms the worshipper into a consecrated priest entering the Holy of
Holies, being transplanted back in time to the sacral moment of covenant and, at the same
moment, physically transformed into an embodiment of the Tabernacle and the Torah.
II. SACRED CONTENTS IN SACRED FORMS
The forms and shapes and the precisely prescribed ritual attendant upon the tefillin are of an
equal nature to their selected prayer contents. For the sake of brevity and much clarity, I refer
the reader to the extensive and authoritative notes accompanying this essay as to the described
objects. Their contents and use are unfamiliar to many people, Jews as well as non-Jews.
Tefillin are sacred objects to Judaism and must be made to a precise code of materials, shape,
size, and color. The use of leather from a “clean” (i.e. kosher) animal is self-explanatory. The
four central prayers encased in each box are easily explained as a covenantal summary or coda
of the entire Torah. What I have not found anywhere nor heard commented upon is the origin
of their shape, their precise and beautiful construction, the reason for the strictures against
embellishment or innovation of shape or color: in short, the aesthetic symbolic reasoning
underlining their unusual appearance.
It is also unknown exactly when their design was first codified and by whom it was done. The
Torah prayers inside tefillin mention only their use in the tefillin ritual itself. The absence of
aesthetic commentary on ritual objects is a constant of Jewish tradition. As in all Judaic objects
explicitly sacred or holy in and of themselves, their sanctity derives from their Torah content 3
not from their physical form or materials. 4 The one exception would be the Menorah (the seven
branched lamp).
The sanctity of tefillin derives not only from their words inside but from their imitation in
structure to a Torah scroll. The sacred texts are written by hand, by a scribe upon parchment
and carefully rolled up for insertion. It is the tefillins’ shape which have fascinated me; the very
severity of their form and color and the awkwardness and intricacy of their usage. The windings
of leather, the timing of their placement upon the body interspersed with prayers are of utmost
urgency and precision and to an extent, a discomfort. Everything about tefillin militates against
one seeing them as merely beautiful objects, or as an enhancement of our appearance in that
physical way which we associate with objects of art and especially religious art. And yet, they
2