Editing Tefillin (section)

=== Parchment scrolls ===
[[File:Jeruzalem. Oude man maakt doosjes voor gebedssnoeren (tefellin) achter een voll…, Bestanddeelnr 255-2339.jpg|thumb|Man makes boxes for tefillin, Jerusalem, 1964]]
[[File:Jerusalem (997009326115605171.jpg|thumb|Man makes tefillin, Jerusalem, 1949. Photo by [[Boris Carmi]]]]
The four biblical passages which refer to the tefillin, mentioned above, are written on scrolls and placed inside the leather boxes.<ref name="JewishEncyclopedia" /> The arm-tefillin has one large compartment, which contains all four biblical passages written upon a single strip of parchment; the head-tefillin has four separate compartments in each of which one scroll of parchment is placed.<ref name="JewishEncyclopedia" /><ref>BT Menachot 34b</ref> This is because the verses describe the hand-tefillin in the singular ("sign"), while in three of four verses, the head-tefillin is described in the plural ("''totafot''").

The passages are written by a [[sofer|scribe]] with special ink on parchment scrolls (''[[klaf]]'').<ref name="JewishEncyclopedia" /> These are: "Sanctify to me ..." (Exodus 13:1–10); "When YHWH brings you ..." (Exodus 13:11–16); "Hear, O Israel ..." (Deuteronomy 6:4–9); and "If you observe My Commandments ..." (Deuteronomy 11:13-21).<ref name="JewishEncyclopedia" /> The Hebrew [[Ktav Ashuri|Ashuri]] script must be used and there are three main styles of lettering used: ''Beis Yosef'' – generally used by [[Ashkenazim]]; ''Arizal'' – generally used by [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidim]]; ''Velish'' – used by [[Sefardim]].<ref name="Eider1985Page13-14">{{cite book|author=Shimon D. Eider|title=Student Edition of Halachos of Tefillin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FrbbdzcfTxkC&pg=PA14|access-date=1 July 2011|date=September 1985|publisher=Feldheim Publishers|isbn=978-1-58330-050-3|pages=13–14}}</ref>

The texts have to be written with halachically acceptable (acceptable according to Jewish law) ink on halachically acceptable parchment. There are precise rules for writing the texts and any error invalidates it. For example, the letters of the text must be written in order - if a mistake is found later, it cannot be corrected as the replacement letter would have been written out of sequence. There are 3188 letters on the parchments, and it can take a [[sofer]] (scribe) as long as 15 hours to write a complete set.<ref>[http://www.stam.net/what_is_stam.aspx What is Tefillin?], ''www.stam.net''. Retrieved 1 July 2011</ref>

====Ordering of scrolls (Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam tefillin)====
{{See also|:he:סדר הפרשיות בתפילין}}
Talmudic commentators debated the order in which scrolls should be written in the hand tefillin and inserted into the four compartments of the head-tefillin.<ref name="JewishEncyclopedia" /> [[Rashi]] held that the passages are placed according to the chronological order as they appear in the Torah (''Kadesh Li'', ''Ve-haya Ki Yeviehcha'', ''Shema'', ''Ve-haya Im Shemoa''), while according to [[Rabbeinu Tam]], the last two passages are switched around.<ref name="Jacobs1984">{{cite book|first=Louis|last=Jacobs|title=The book of Jewish belief|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pFpZgMzsEWYC&pg=PA128|access-date=1 July 2011|date=November 1984|publisher=Behrman House, Inc|isbn=978-0-87441-379-3|page=128}}</ref> There are two additional opinions of the Shimusha Rabba and the Raavad, who hold that like Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam respectively, but they hold that the scrolls are placed in the head tefillin in mirror image of those opinions.<ref>[https://www.torahmusings.com/2011/08/tefillin-shimusha-rabba-and-raavad/ Tefillin: Shimusha Rabba and Ra’avad]</ref>

It is often claimed that of the tefillin dating from the 1st-century CE discovered at [[Qumran]] in the [[Judean Desert]], some were made according to the order understood by Rashi and others in the order of Rabbeinu Tam;<ref name="Jacobs1984" /> however, they in fact do not follow either opinion.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cohn |first1=Yehudah |title=The Real Origins of the Rashi, Rabbenu Tam Tefillin Dispute |url=http://thegemara.com/the-real-origins-of-the-rashi-rabbenu-tam-tefillin-dispute/ |website=TheGemara.com |date=11 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160214075627/http://thegemara.com/the-real-origins-of-the-rashi-rabbenu-tam-tefillin-dispute/ |archive-date=2016-02-14 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cohn |first1=Yehudah |title=Rabbenu Tam's tefillin : an Ancient Tradition or the Product of Medieval Exegesis? |journal=Jewish Studies Quarterly |date=2007 |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=319–327 |doi=10.1628/094457007783244619 |jstor=40753443 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40753443 |issn=0944-5706}}</ref>

Nowadays, the prevailing custom is to arrange the scrolls according to Rashi's view, but some pious Jews are also accustomed to briefly lay the tefillin of Rabbeinu Tam as well,<ref name="Jacobs1984" /> a custom of the [[Isaac Luria|Ari]] adopted by the [[Hasidim]], many [[Sephardic]] communities, and individuals within the Ashkenazic community.<ref name="Rabinowicz1996">{{cite book|first=Tzvi|last=Rabinowicz|title=The encyclopedia of Hasidism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OprXAAAAMAAJ|access-date=1 July 2011|year=1996|publisher=Jason Aronson|isbn=978-1-56821-123-7|page=482}}</ref> The [[Vilna Gaon]], who wore the tefillin of Rashi, rejected the stringency of also laying Rabbeinu Tam, pointing out that there were 64 possible arrangements of the tefillin scrolls, and it would not be practical to put on 64 different sets of tefillin to account for all possibilities.<ref name="Project2007">[[Aharon Lichtenstein]], '"Mah Enosh": Reflections on the Relation between Judaism and Humanism', ''The Torah U-Madda Journal'', Vol. 14 (2006-07), p.46</ref> The [[Shulchan Aruch]] rules that only "one who is known and famous for his piety" should put on Rabbeinu Tam tefillin,<ref>Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 34:3</ref> while the [[Mishnah Brurah]] explains that if any other person puts on Rabbeinu Tam tefillin, it is a sign of arrogance.<ref>Mishnah Brurah, Orach Chaim 34:16</ref>

The placement of the protrusion of a tuft of calf hairs (''se'ar eigel'') identifies as to which opinion the tefillin were written.<ref name="Eider1985Page21">{{cite book|author=Shimon D. Eider|title=Student Edition of Halachos of Tefillin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FrbbdzcfTxkC&pg=PA21|access-date=1 July 2011|date=September 1985|publisher=Feldheim Publishers|isbn=978-1-58330-050-3|page=21}}</ref>