As you know, the topic tonight is tefillin, the mitzvah of tefillin, which is known as the crown of glory. This term, the crown of glory, comes from the berachot we say every morning. There are different blessings that we're supposed to say to thank Hashem for all the good things He gives us. We thank Him for the sight, we thank Him for our health, we thank Him for the fact that we're able to walk. One of the berachot that we say is thanking Hashem for עוטר ישראל בתפארה, which means that He crowns the Jews with beauty. And that refers to the tefillin. Our Sages tell us that that refers to the tefillin. The tefillin is a crown, a crown of beauty, a crown of glory. Obviously, that shows that tefillin is a very, very important mitzvah, and as I will try to explain throughout this class. Now, even though the mitzvah of tefillin really is only an obligation on men, and women are not obligated to put on tefillin, so some women might think, so what are we doing here? Why do we want to hear a class on the mitzvah of tefillin? But the truth is, it's not that the women don't have what tefillin accomplishes, it's the women are not obligated to put them on, but they do share in all the great accomplishments that we have from tefillin. The wife shares with the tefillin that her husband puts on. So therefore, it is important for the women also to know what tefillin is. Now, this class, as we all we try to do, is not only to explain the mitzvah according to the simple interpretation, the simple peshat, but also a little bit of a flavor of Kabbalah and Chassidut, the way that we find in Kabbalah the explanation to the different mitzvot or to different topics that we discuss. So we will do that today too. Tefillin is a very, very important mitzvah. The Gemara says that הוקשה כל התורה כולה לתפילין. That means that the whole Torah is compared to tefillin. Imagine, the whole Torah, which means all the mitzvot, 613 mitzvot are all compared to the mitzvah of tefillin. And as the Rebbe points out, this is a much stronger expression than the expression we find concerning many other mitzvot. There are quite a few mitzvot where the Talmud says that they are שקולה כנגד כל התורה. שקולה means it weighs, the literal translation is it weighs like the whole Torah, which means that that specific mitzvah is as important as all other mitzvot put together. It weighs as much as the whole Torah. But here we're saying in other words, here we're saying that they are all compared to the mitzvah of tefillin. That shows even more, that shows that mitzvah of tefillin is as if, as if we're saying that the mitzvah of tefillin is the whole Torah, and everything is only like a mashal, everything is only compared to tefillin. So it's not only that tefillin is so great and so important, but tefillin basically is the essence of the whole Torah. That's what this מימרא דחז\"ל, this statement of our Sages tells us, that tefillin is the essence of the whole Torah. And we know that tefillin is a very, very important mitzvah. Tefillin is the sign between the Jews and השם, כי אות היא ביני וביניכם, it is the sign Hashem says between Me and you. And that is the reason why on Shabbos we don't put on tefillin, on Yom Tov we don't put on tefillin, because Shabbos in itself is a sign, so we don't need to put on tefillin. But during the week, we have to put on tefillin, because that is the sign that we belong to Hashem. Concerning the mitzvah of tefillin, the Gemara says different segulot, different good things that could come out of it. Number one, the Gemara says כל המניח תפילין מאריך ימים, anybody who puts on tefillin will live long. Then the Gemara quotes the pasuk where it says וראו כל עמי הארץ כי שם ה' נקרא עליך ויראו ממך, which means all the nations of the world will see that Hashem's name, God's name, is called upon you and they will be afraid of you. And the Gemara says, how do the non-Jews see Hashem's name, God's name upon us? And the Gemara says אלו תפילין שבראש. If they see the tefillin they see Hashem's name upon us. And what does the Gemara say the pasuk continues? ויראו ממך, and they will be afraid of you. So one of the things to do spiritually to bring fear upon the enemies of the Jews is putting on tefillin. It says in the, Chazal tell us concerning shevet Gad, one of the tribes was Gad, and the Chumash says that Gad, the tribe of Gad, were giborim, they were very, very strong, and the pasuk describes their strength. The pasuk says, וטרף זרוע אף קדקד. Simple peshat means that they were able to kill the enemy by with one chop they would chop off the head and the hand together. And the Rosh says, one of the commentaries, that in which zechut can a person reach that level to become victorious over his enemies in such a way, is by putting on tefillin on the head and on the hand. This all shows the greatness of tefillin, what tefillin carries, and what tefillin can accomplish. But first, before we get into these details, let's first explain what tefillin is. When we know what tefillin is, then we could go further to explain what it could accomplish and what comes out of it, etc., etc.

Now we know tefillin comes from the Torah. In the Chumash we find four times where the Torah mentions that you shall tie it for a sign on your hand and have it for a zikaron, for a memory, or for frontlets, בין עיניך, between your eyes. That's what the Torah says. The Torah does not give us any details, it doesn't tell us exactly what to do. All it says is tie it for a sign on your hand. Someone would learn that pasuk, that verse in the Torah, could do anything, he'll make any sign, he'll take a potato and put it in his hand, and he'll fulfill this commandment. The Torah says it shall be for frontlets between your eyes. Well, we would think whatever we're supposed to do we're supposed to do it right here, top of our nose between our eyes. We don't know exactly what to do, but we know that together with the תורה שבכתב comes תורה שבעל פה. Together with the written Torah we have the oral Torah, which means that Hashem, God in the Torah, in the written Torah, in the five books of Moshe, of Moses, in those sefarim he only gave the general points of the mitzvot, but he didn't describe and explain exactly what to do. Most of the mitzvot, ninety-nine percent of the mitzvah, if we would just learn the Chumash we would not understand what to do. So orally Hashem explained to Moshe Rabbeinu, when Moshe Rabbeinu came up to Shamayim to speak to Hashem, orally he explained to him exactly what to do when it comes to every mitzvah. So too concerning the mitzvah of tefillin, Hashem explained what to do, what he meant when he said you shall tie it for a sign on your hand and for frontlets between your eyes. And he said, what I mean is that you should take parchments, pieces of parchment, and on those parchments you shall write the four portions of the Torah where I talk about this mitzvah of tefillin. And he told Moshe exactly which parts of the Torah to write. And he said you have to write it on parchment, and you have to put it into leather boxes, and one box will be on your hand and one box will be on your head. And he explained to him exactly what kind of boxes, and I'm not going to go through all the details here of all the laws of how to make tefillin and what tefillin is, just very general, he explained to him exactly how to make those leather boxes, and he also explained to him which way he wants those portions of the Torah to be written on the parchment. And he told him that when I want you to put the parchment into the תפילין של יד, the tefillin on the hand, I want all four portions of the Torah to be written on one piece of parchment. Then the one that you're going to put into the תפילין של ראש, into the tefillin of the head, you shall write these four portions on four separate parchments. I want you to put it in to the tefillin, into that leather box in four separate compartments, but the one that's going to go onto the hand shall go in one compartment, and then I want you to sew it up, and all the many details concerning all these things. Then I want you to take רצועות, those straps, and the straps have to be black, and I want you to put them through those boxes, and you shall put one on the hand and one on the head, and those have to be square. And many, many more halachot that Hashem said concerning the tefillin. Now, there are many things that Hashem outright said to Moshe Rabbeinu exactly how to do it. Certain things he didn't tell him exactly how to do, he just gave him the codes to learn out from the way the pasuk is written how to do certain things. Then certain things the chachamim, the Rabbis, who the Torah, Hashem gave the authority to add certain points to mitzvot if they feel it necessary, certain things they added, and certain things that we have in the tefillin which are only minhagim, only customs. But from all that together comes out the tefillin that we have. And the mitzvah is that we shall wear the tefillin on the hand and on the head all day. That how the mitzvah was originally: to wear it on the hand and on the head all day. But there are certain restrictions when we wear tefillin, certain things we're not allowed to do. For instance, there are certain places places you're not allowed to enter with the tefillin. You have to have a clean body and more דינים that are great restrictions, and many people are not able to be careful to be in that situation all day, therefore the rabbis in the later generations said that being that even though the mitzvah was to keep it all day, but the main time when we have to have it on is during Keriat Shema when we say the Shema and when we daven. Therefore, they said it's worthwhile not to have it on all day, but just to have it on during Keriat Shema and tefillah, because that way you will have it on at the time when you really have to, and you will not have it on at a time when you might be doing worse, you might be doing something wrong because you will have it on in a situation when you're not allowed to have it on. And that's how it turns out that we put on the tefillin every day when we daven, and the most important part is during the Shema. And therefore, even those people that have no time to put it on, they think at least they have no time to put it on, everyone has a time to put it on during davenen, but sometimes, you know, you have people who are not so religious and they don't know the importance of tefillin, so what we ask them is at least put it on and say Shema, so you will have it on during the time of Shema. This is the physical part of the mitzvah of tefillin. But besides the mitzvah of tefillin of putting on those boxes with the parchments inside that you have to put on and have it on mainly during the time of Kriat Shema and tefillah,

there is the second part of tefillin which we call the kavana of tefillin. There is the maaseh, the act of putting on tefillin, and then you have the kavana, the intentions that we are supposed to have when we put on tefillin. Now, I want to make it clear, every mitzvah has two aspects to it. Has the מעשה המצוה, the doing of the mitzvah, the actual act of the mitzvah, and then the intentions, the thoughts that are supposed to go through one's mind when you perform the mitzvah. And there are different levels. Some mitzvot, the halacha is, מצות אין צריכות כוונה, that you should have those special kavanot, special intentions while you do the mitzvah, but if you didn't, you have fulfilled the mitzvah nevertheless. Then there are certain mitzvot that if you don't have the kavana, that specific kavana, intentions that you're supposed to, you have not fulfilled the mitzvah. Tefillin is one of those that if you don't have the proper intentions you have not fulfilled, but tefillin is even more than that. By the other mitzvot, even those mitzvot that the kavana is important and without it you didn't do the mitzvah, it is still only called kavana of the mitzvah. The act of the mitzvah is the maaseh that you do, the act that you do. Then you have the kavana, which is only a kavana, the intentions of the mitzvah. But these intentions are so important that if you don't have them, then you don't fulfill the mitzvah. By tefillin, the kavana, the intentions you're supposed to have when you put on tefillin are part of the mitzvah itself. It's not the kavanah of the mitzvah, this is part of the mitzvah. It is not true to say that the mitzvah is to put on the tefillin, then there's a second part to it, you have to have certain things in mind. That is not true. If someone will ask what is the mitzvah, how do you perform the mitzvah, to answer do this and this is not true. That's not the complete מעשה המצוה, that's not the complete act of the mitzvah. The kavanah, the intentions we're supposed to have when we put on tefillin is part of the mitzvah. You have not performed the mitzvah if you don't have the kavanah. Now, what is the kavanah of the mitzvah? What is the kavanah of tefillin? The kavanah is, as some people have the custom, they actually say it, many people before they put on tefillin there's a certain paragraph they say, and in that paragraph they say the kavanah. We, actually our nusach we don't say it, but we have to have that in our mind. And that is, that by putting on tefillin we are משעבד המוח והלב להשם, which means by putting on tefillin on our head and on our hand, we give up to Hashem our mind and our heart and our actions. The tefillin on the head is on top of the brain. The tefillin on the hand is on the left hand right next to the heart, and since it's on the hand, the hand represents action, so putting on the tefillin means that we tell Hashem that our brain, our mind is given over to you. Our heart, which is the place of our emotions, is given over to you. Our behavior, our actions is given over to you. This is what tefillin is. And by doing that, we accept upon ourselves kabbalat ol malchut shamayim, we accept upon ourselves the yoke of Hashem, the yoke of God, which is the real, real yirat shamayim, which is the fear of Hashem, and this is why tefillin is the most important mitzvah, because the most important part before you start doing any mitzvah, you have to accept upon yourself קבלת עול, the yoke of Hashem. This is what tefillin is. And this is the real way to fight the יצר הרע, the evil inclination, is by putting on tefillin, because by doing that, we are fighting the powers of the evil inclination by putting on tefillin, giving ourselves over to Hashem. This is why the Zohar, the Zohar says that when you tie the tefillin around your hand, he uses the term you are tying the dog. It says hakelav, you are tying the dog. And the dog, the kelev represents the yetzer hara, evil inclination. By doing that, you tie the dog. We tie our yetzer hara up, and we give it over to Hashem, which means we give ourselves over to Hashem. We accept upon ourselves the yoke of Hashem so strong, so much, that not only does it affect us, but as it was, as I said before, the Gemara says this brings fear of Hashem upon others, upon the goyim. Because this is mamash, it brings the truth of Hashem upon us, not only that we feel it, but it overflows, it actually comes out of us, and it is seen by others, and this brings yirat shamayim even to others. ויראו ממך the פסוק says, they'll be afraid of you. But it all starts because when we put on tefillin, this is what we're doing: we're bringing yirat shamayim upon us. This is what we have to have in mind when we put on tefillin. And if a person doesn't have this in mind, he missed the point of tefillin. The kavanah here is part of the mitzvah. Now there's another point in the mitzvah of tefillin, and that is that tefillin is the Jewish uniform. Just like every army has their own uniform to show that this every person every soldier belongs to that army, we have our uniform that shows that we belong to the army of Hashem. The uniform actually tzitzit and tefillin, but we're talking about tefillin now, so when you wear tefillin, this is the uniform. Now even though a uniform is a very superficial thing, it's not part of the person, it's just superficial garment that you wear, but nevertheless this expresses where you belong. If a person wants to show he belongs to a certain tribe, he belongs to a certain nation, you would put on a uniform to make sure that this is seen and everyone sees this. When we want to show that we belong to Hashem, we're the nation of Hashem, we are in the army of Hashem, so we put on this uniform. And this is not like the tzitzit, which is a uniform we wear on the body, this is a crown. This is a special uniform, which is a crown that we wear on top of our head. And this uniform shows the world and ourselves that we belong to this nation, we belong to this army. But the truth is this uniform is different than other uniforms. The idea of wearing a uniform, or בכלל the idea of wearing a symbol to show that you belong to a certain group or a certain tribe, is something that's done by every nation, by many people. And still, when we do the same thing, we do it differently, because by other nations, other people, the symbol itself is a beautiful thing. Something you wear, a necklace made of silver or gold, you wear something that has a big sign that says, \"I belong to this and this nation.\" Tefillin, when someone looks at the tefillin, it is our uniform, but it's not like a beautiful thing, it's a black box made of leather, and it has no superficial or outward beauty that you could say, \"Well, this shows we belong to the most special nation in the world.\" And nevertheless, this is our uniform, because what we do, why is this our uniform? Only because Hashem said so. In other words, the whole mitzvah of tefillin is the kabalat ol, the acceptance of the yoke of Hashem. But the acceptance of the yoke of Hashem that we do through the tefillin, the uniform itself is kabalat ol. The uniform itself is not something that we do that makes sense, \"Oh, this makes sense!\" There is no reason, logical reason to explain why wearing this box on your head or this box on your hand is the uniform that you belong to Hashem. But why is it the uniform? Because Hashem said so. So the fact that it's the uniform in itself is part of this kabbalat ol, this accepting the yoke of Hashem, and not because of any other reason. It doesn't show anything in itself, it's just because Hashem said so. But anyway, let's get back to the point that it's supposed to show that we give up our mind and our heart and our action to Hashem. Because in truth there are different opinions in the world amongst people. There are certain opinions of certain groups that the most important part is the intellect, and that's what has to be the right way. The emotions are not so important, the action is not so important, the intellect is the most important part. By some people, it's different. Some groups feel that the emotions are the most important part, and the intellect and the action are not so important. There are some people who feel that the actions are the most important part, but the intellect and the emotions are not important. What does the Torah say? What does Hashem want? We have to have it all. The intellect and the emotion and the actions, they all have to be part of have to be given over to Hashem, and we have to show that our our intellect is working towards Hashem, our emotions are towards Hashem, and our action towards Hashem, all three. Among those three, which one is the most important one? Well, obviously, the action. The action is the most important. And we see in the tefillin, which of the tefillin represents the action? The tefillin shel yad, the one of the hand. And that's the first one we put on, because that's the first thing. And not only that, there is a halacha in Gemara, in שולחן ערוך, כל זמן שבין עיניך יהיו שנים. Whenever you have the tefillin shel rosh on, you must have the tefillin shel yad on. That's the reason we put on first tefillin shel yad, so when we put on the tefillin shel rosh, we already have the tefillin shel yad, so we have them both. When we take them off, we first take off the shel rosh and then the shel yad, for the same reason. Because you cannot have the tefillin shel rosh on unless you have the tefillin shel yad on. Why? Because the tefillin shel yad represents the action. And that's the one we have to have always, the most important one. The Baal Shem Tov said that the tefillin shel yad represents those Jews that do the right thing. They might not be such intellectual people, but if they do the right thing, they are the most important people. You can have people who are great intellectuals, and they understand everything, but if they don't do the right thing, then they miss the point. But if the people do the right thing, even though their intellect is not that great, they nevertheless have the what the main point, which is the action. And that's why he says the tefillin shel yad, which is the action, represents those people who have who do the right thing. But generally speaking, it's both. We have to have the mind, the heart, and the hand, and all of it has to be batel to Hashem. This is basically the explanation of the mitzvah of tefillin in the simple peshat, according to halacha, according to the Shulchan Aruch, according to the simple peshat.

But then we have the way the mitzvah of tefillin is al pi kabbalah, according to kabbalah, according to chassidut. And in chassidut it says that what do we accomplish with the mitzvah of tefillin? Now I'll tell say the words then I'll explain it. It says that the mitzvah of tefillin is ממשיך from מוחין into מדות in אצילות. Now, anybody who learned Kabbalah or Chassidus, just touched upon it, knows that we have four spiritual worlds. And the highest one of them all is אצילות: אצילות, בריאה, יצירה, and עשיה. And אצילות is the highest spiritual world, as a world is the closest to the essence of Hashem. In אצילות, as well as in the other worlds, we have the עשר ספירות. We have the ten ספירות, or as they're known modern way, the the ten ספירות, the עשר ספירות we have. Which are חכמה, בינה, דעת, חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, יסוד, מלכות. חכמה, בינה, דעת are the three parts of the intellect, and then we have the other seven which are seven emotions. Just like we human beings have three parts of our intellect and then the seven parts of our emotions, so too in the higher worlds, in the godly spiritual worlds, we have these two categories: we have חכמה, בינה, דעת of אצילות, and then we have חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, יסוד, מלכות, the מדות of אצילות. And that is a normal סדר השתלשלות. That is the normal way the אור אין סוף, the godly light flows from starting off from Hashem Himself and flows down till it comes into this world, it goes through the order of these worlds. And in each world it goes through the order of first going through חכמה, בינה, דעת, the intellectual ספירות of that world, going down to the emotional, so to speak, ספירות of that world. And as the light travels from one level to another, it gets smaller, it gets diminished. Light travels and gets less and less, the strength is less, especially when it travels from the level of חכמה, בינה, דעת of אצילות, those three levels, and it's supposed to enter into the level of the מדות of אצילות, it certainly gets less. That's the normal order of the flow of the light. Just like physically, in the human body, the body is built so that you have the head, and then you have the other part of the body which contains the heart, but in the middle you have the neck, The head is bigger than the neck, and then in the neck it narrows down, and then it goes down lower, to show that what you have in your intellect, which is supposed to have an effect on your emotions, gets narrowed down. By the time it comes to the emotions, it's much smaller. It gets narrowed down. So too in those higher levels of אצילות, the light of Hashem, which is the אור אין סוף, the infinite light of Hashem, that travels from חב״ד, חכמה בינה דעת, in through the other מדות, חסד גבורה תפארת נצח הוד יסוד, חג״ת נה״י, it gets narrowed down, and the light is not so strong. By putting on tefillin, what we accomplish is we bring down the light, the אור אין סוף, the godly light that's in חב״ד, in חכמה בינה דעת of אצילות, that it should come down into the מדות with the same strength as it was in חב״ד. It shouldn't become less. And automatically, if it comes down with the same strength, as it continues lower, till finally it reaches this world, it's stronger than it would have been otherwise. So every time a Jew puts on tefillin, he is ממשיך, he brings down the light of Hashem that it should continue into the מדות, into the emotions of אצילות, with the same strength of light as it was in Chabad. The Gemara says there is a concept of תפילין דמארי עלמא, tefillin of Hashem. Hashem also has tefillin. Not physical tefillin, obviously. When we put on tefillin, we cause Hashem should put on tefillin, which means, according to Kabbalah, that by us putting on tefillin, we bring about that in the higher worlds, by Hashem, from the מוחין should come down to the מדות, the light should transfer in the same, with the same strength as it was in the higher level. And the same applies to us in our service of Hashem. Besides what I said before that the tefillin are supposed to accomplish, the fact that we show that I give away to Hashem my intellect, I give away to Hashem my heart, my מדות, my emotions, my actions, it's supposed to accomplish this also. It's supposed to help bring what we have in our Chabad, in our חכמה בינה דעת, in our mind, it's supposed to help it come down into our heart and into our actions, because many times what happens is we have very good ideas in our mind, and we have very good resolutions in our mind, but when it comes to the heart, and certainly when it comes to the hands, to the actions, they become much smaller and they're not with the same strength as it was in one's mind. There is what we call the מצר הגרון which blocks it, which is a terrible thing. This is referred to in Chassidus and Kabbalah as the klipah of Amalek. We know Amalek was the nation that started up with the Jews. So it says, what does Amalek stand for? So it says Amalek stands for this idea of not allowing what we have in our mind, when we understand something is right and we want to do it, and we make up our mind to do it, and then when it comes to do it, well, next time, tomorrow, this time, we just can't get ourselves to do it. That's the klipah of Amalek. The word Amalek, it says in Kabbalah, comes from the word ומלק. In Chumash we find concerning the certain קרבנות of birds, the way to שחט it, how they slaughtered it, was they would take the nail and break the neck, separate the neck from the body. That's called מליקה, to separate. That's what Amalek is, the separation between the brain and the heart. There is a separation, and it doesn't allow the flow. That's why it says also in, Rashi brings, the Gemara says, that Amalek is יודע את רבונו ומכוון למרוד בו. He knows Hashem, Amalek represents a person who knows the truth of Hashem, but nevertheless doesn't do what he knows. It doesn't come, when it comes down to action, he doesn't do it. There is this separation. That's why it also says, אין השם שלם עד שימחה זרעו של עמלק. Hashem's name is not complete till the children of Amalek will be destroyed. What is Hashem's name? Hashem's name is י, ק, ו, ק. But by Amalek, it says just the י and the ה. The second half is not there. Amalek is the separation between the first half and the second half. Now what is the, the idea of the first half? י and the ה, it says in קבלה, חסידות, י represents the חכמה, ה is בינה, and the ו and the ה represents the מדות. By Amalek, we find אין השם שלם, the name is not complete. Amalek only has the י and the ה, wants to keep it away from the ו and the ה, which means Amalek is the קליפה, that is the the the force within the world that tries to stop the good ideas that we have in our mind from coming down into the heart. When we put on tefillin, what tefillin is supposed to accomplish is that within ourselves, it should help us bring what we have in our mind into our heart. So it's both. It's within ourselves, and it's within אצילות, in the higher spiritual worlds. And this is what it says in many places in חסידות, that the idea of tefillin is the hamshachah from מוחין to מידות, the bringing down from the intellect into the מידות, whether it's in אצילות, bringing down the light of Hashem the way it's in חכמה, בינה, דעת of אצילות into the מידות, or within the person, bringing it down from the מוחין into the מידות. And that's why we have the רצועות. We have the straps. The straps hang down, that is supposed to show that it comes down from the head, and it's like a pipe. It comes down through the straps down, and all the way down. What is the שיעור? What is the measurement of how long do the straps have to be? There are different opinions. There is even an opinion it has to go all the way down to the feet. It's supposed to show that what we have in our mind should not stop, but it should continue down all the way through our heart, through our hands, all the way down into our feet. So this is the the depth of the mitzvah of tefillin, the hamshachah, the connection of the mochin to the middos. This is why on the tefillin we have a ש. When you look at the tefillin, the tefillin shel rosh, you have on both sides engraved, actually it's not engraved, it sticks out, from the tefillin you have two ש's. The three lines on the ש, according to Kabbalah, represent the three parts of the intellect. Then on the other side of the tefillin, we have a ש of four lines. Some people don't even notice it. A ש מיט דריי קעפעלעך and a ש מיט פיר קעפעלעך. On one side, the ש is the regular ש like we have in our writing in the Sefer Torah. On the other side, the ש is with four lines. Actually, it says Chazal tell us, where did this come from? Because when Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu to put the ש on the tefillin, He showed him with His fingers, He made like that, which meant four, but at the same time, if you look in between the empty space, you have three. So Hashem showed him that you have to have a ש of three and a ש of four, that's what it says. Hashem showed him with His fingers, whatever that shall mean spiritually, this four fingers He showed him. And that's how we got on one side the ש of three and the other side the ש of four. And let me explain על פי קבלה what is the idea of a ש with three and a ש with four. The ש represents chochmah, binah, and daas, the three parts of the intellect. Now what is daas? Chochmah and binah are two parts of intellect, and we learn what chochmah and binah is. When a person learns, and this is just in short to explain what chochmah and binah is, when a person learns something, and he has different questions, you can learn a סוגיא, a certain subject, and you can have 25 questions, and you don't understand it, so many things don't make sense, and you sit down to start think to think, and all of a sudden you get the point, ah, I get the point! But this point still doesn't explain this detail and that detail and that detail. Then you sit down and you start thinking and thinking, and everything falls into place. You develop that point into all the details till yeah, now I understand this and this, and everything makes sense, and the whole puzzle fits. That first spark or lightning of sechel, that's called chochmah. In Kabbalah that's chochmah, in Chassidus. When you develop it, that's Binah. These are two stages of the person's intellect. This is the normal process of thinking in a human being. You have Chochmah and you have Binah. What's Daas? So it says Daas is not another stage of intellect, but Daas is part of intellect. In English, they translate Chochmah, Binah, Daas: wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. I always say this, I'm not sure that these words have any special connection. I think they just picked three words, and they said Chochmah means this. But maybe it does, I don't know, I'm not so familiar with the English language. But what is Daas? It's not another stage of understanding. Daas is that after you understand it, because Chochmah, Binah together, you understand it already, Chochmah is the point, Daas, Binah is the development, now you have everything. But then the point of the intellect is that it should have an effect on your emotions, that's the main thing. The main thing of the intellect, when you understand something properly, automatically it has to bring out emotions. If you know something is good, it has to make you, you have to love it. If something is bad, you have to be afraid of it, it has to have. So you have the Chochmah and Binah, which is the intellect, then you have the Daas, which is in between, this is the Memutza, the intermediate, this connects, this is the link in between the Mochin and the Midos, the link that connects the Sechel and the Midos, that's called Daas, which is after you understand it properly and you develop it, you sit down and you rethink it and rethink it, you don't get new understanding, but it makes it so clear in your mind that now you actually start feeling it. So Daas is in between, and that's why Daas, which is the third part of the intellect, is sometimes referred to as Chesed and Gevurah. Chesed and Gevurah are the first two parts of the emotions, which are really the main ones, and all other emotions are branches of Chesed and Gevurah. So sometimes Daas in itself, even though Daas is the intellect, is divided into two because it has the intellectual part and it has the emotional part. So the emotional part is Chesed and Gevurah, so it's two. So here we have the ש with the three is Chochmah Binah Daas, and then we have the ש with the four is Chochmah Binah and two of Daas which are the Midos, which basically fits to what I've been saying before, that the whole concept of Tefillin is to take the Mochin and bring it and connect it to the Midos. So on the Tefillin, we have that ש of three and the ש of four. That's the connection between the Mochin and the Midos, which is in the three and the four. And that's the deeper meaning of what it says by the שבט of גד, וטרף זרוע אף קדקד, that they would chop down the head and the hands together, which means they would get rid of the enemy, the head, the head, I mean the head and the hands together, which spiritually means that they would work of bringing together the head and the hand by being, by fulfilling what the mitzvah of tefillin stands for, which is uniting the brain, the intellect with the hand, which is the ש of the three and the ש of the four. That physically brought them, gave them the strength to be able to do this to the enemy physically, because we know that what happens physically is a reflection of what happens spiritually. So spiritually they would do it, and they were very careful in the mitzvah of tefillin, it says. That's why they were able to do this. And it's interesting, look at the name Gad. The name Gad is made up of two letters. Which two letters? ג and ד. ג is three and ד is four. Those are the two שינ'ס: the ש of the three and the ש of the four. And that shows the המשכה from the שכל, from the מוחין, from the intellect to the מידות, which is what Gad had, and that's why they were able to overcome the enemy in such a way. And this is what על פי קבלה means when it says that the mitzvah of tefillin gives you this power, because if you do the mitzvah of tefillin properly, with the proper כוונה, according to קבלה, you're ממשיך, you bring from שכל to מידות, then you're able to accomplish this. Then you have the real kabalat ol like you're supposed to have. And it says in the maamar that we say to the Bar Mitzvah that this is why learning Torah and tefillin have a lot in common. Because when you learn Torah, learning Torah, the mitzvah of learning Torah does the same thing. Learning Torah is an intellectual thing. You learn, you understand. But when you learn properly, what happens? לימוד מביא לידי מעשה. If you learn properly, it will affect your heart and will affect your actions. As the pasuk says, וידעת היום והשבות אל לבבך. If you know today, you'll bring it to your heart. It has the effect. So learning Torah, when you learn a lot, this is what you will accomplish, and the mitzvah of tefillin accomplishes the same way. This is what the Midrash says, that Rabbi Elazar, one of the חכמים, תנאים, said, אמרו ישראל לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא, the Yidden said to Hashem, we would like to learn Torah day and night, אבל אין לנו פנאי, we have no time, what shall we do? So Hashem said, קימו מצות תפילין, fulfill the mitzvah of תפילין, ומעלה אני עליכם כאלו אתם יגעים בתורה יומם ולילה, and I will consider it as if you learn Torah day and night. And he explains in the maamar, what's the pshat? Because you're going to put on tefillin, it's like you learned Torah? Obviously they must have something in common to say one is a substitute for the other. Yes, they have a lot in common, because the whole idea of tefillin is to bring down from your intellect, and hopefully you have a proper understanding of the truth in your mind, but the problem is it doesn't come down to your heart and to your actions. So learning Torah would accomplish it, and if you don't have the time to learn Torah, by putting on tefillin we accomplish the same thing. So by putting on tefillin, we do all this that we said before. We say to Hashem, we show to Hashem, that we're giving up our brain, our intellect to You, our heart to You, our actions. And what we also say, we will make sure that from our intellect it'll come into our heart in the proper way without getting stuck some place in the middle. We will have the רצועות, we will bring down from the ש, from there we will bring it down into the heart, and we will have the proper kabbalat ol malchut shamayim, the proper acceptance of the yoke of Hashem. And this is the reason it says why Shabbos we don't have to put on tefillin, because Shabbos is a sign in itself, which means Shabbos is a day that if you keep Shabbos properly, This itself helps a person give himself over to Hashem. Keeping Shabbos Shabbos brings kedushah, holiness into the person, that he he has the kabbalat ol, the acceptance of the yoke of Hashem automatically. And if he has anything in his mind that is hard for him to bring it down into the heart, into the action, just by keeping Shabbos he will accomplish it. So on Shabbos and Yom Tov we don't have to put on tefillin because we have it from the day itself. But during the week, when we don't have that special power, so by putting on tefillin we do it. Now in tefillin itself, we know there are two kinds of tefillin: there's Rashi's tefillin and Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin. Now the reason we call it Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam's is because Rashi, this great scholar, sage, Rashi, he said that you have to put, make, do tefillin make the tefillin in a certain way, and Rabbeinu Tam, he had paskent that you have to do it a different way. That means that there are two ways, that there are two opinions of how to make the tefillin: which order to write the פרשיות, how to put them in, and a few other details. Now the halacha, the accepted halacha is like Rashi, and that's why most people put on only Rashi's tefillin, which is the halacha. But nevertheless, being that there is another opinion, many people are careful to put them both on, so we should make sure that we do the right the mitzvah of tefillin the right way according to all opinions. According to Kabbalah, it's very important to put Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin. And according to Kabbalah, the way that Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin is made, it's even in a higher level than Rashi's tefillin. As I said before, tefillin represents the המשכה, the bringing down of the מוחין to the מדות, the intellect to the emotions. And in the intellect we said we have two, חכמה and בינה, and then we have the דעת, which is the third that connects to the מדות. Between the two, it says in Kabbalah that Rashi's tefillin has mainly is mainly connected to which part of the intellect? To בינה, which is the second one. The Rabbeinu Tam's is connected mainly to חכמה. Out of the two, which one is higher? Well, obviously חכמה is higher than בינה. חכמה is the first, חכמה is the beginning, חכמה is the one that starts everything up. בינה already is a development of what you have already. So Rabbeinu Tam is a higher level than Rashi's, and that is the reason why many people who are not in such a high level would not put on Rabeinu Tam's tefillin because they would feel, I have no connection to such a high level. But the truth is the Arizal from that time of the Arizal when people started learning Kabbalah more, and the Arizal said we have to learn more Kabbalah and Chassidut, it is important for everybody to put on the Rabeinu Tam's tefillin also. We don't make a berachah when we put on Rabeinu Tam's tefillin, that's just for the same reason. Because the Rabeinu Tam's tefillin are such a high level, we can't make a berachah on it. The word berachah, when we make a blessing, the word berachah also means המשכה, to bring down. It's not something that we could really bring down on our own. Hashem gives it us on His own, but we can't do it, so we don't make a berachah. But it is a higher level than Rashi's tefillin. But nowadays it's not only okay, years ago it we it says that not everyone should put on Rabeinu Tam's tefillin, but nowadays it is a custom of many people to put on because now when we're closer to Mashiach and we have more the study of Kabbalah, we are able to accomplish what the Rabeinu Tam's tefillin accomplishes also, and it accomplishes even more, so certainly we should put on Rabeinu Tam's tefillin. I just want to mention a little story, which is with the Rashi and Rabeinu Tam's tefillin, because there are different customs in the tefillin itself, it's small minor things, but generally they're the same, but there's there is and there is the tefillin that we wear, which means Lubavitch puts on, there is ליובאוויטשער תפילין, the way it's written according to the שיטה of Lubavitch, and then there is other שיטות. So I just want to mention that my father-in-law years ago, this goes back about 20 years ago, was very sick. We lived already in Miami and he was very sick, and he was in New York, and they wrote to the Rebbe, he went to the hospital, they wrote to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe answered they should check his tefillin. They checked his tefillin and the tefillin were kosher. And a while later things got worse, wrote to the Rebbe again, and the Rebbe said, check your tefillin. And the sofer checked it again, everything is kosher. Few times like that, and his situation was getting worse and worse. Finally it was I was here, my wife was in New York, and it was Friday, about a half hour before lighting of the candles, my wife calls me that the situation is very bad, and there is she he's bleeding inside, and the doctors have no way of stopping it. They don't know how it is, and they don't know what to do. And slowly, slowly, he's actually losing strength. So, she spoke to me on the phone, so I said to her, \"I'll tell you what, I'll say something that I had in mind for the last two, three weeks, but I didn't say it. Now I'll say it. When the Rebbe said to check his tefillin, he had kosher tefillin, good תפילין, מהודרדיקע תפילין. What went through my mind was that the Rebbe said something in a different expression, but what he meant was that he should change, because my father-in-law did not wear ליובאוויטשער תפילין, he put on tefillin like other communities. I think that what the Rebbe meant was that he should change into ליובאוויטשער תפילין. That's what I think. I didn't want to say it, because the Rebbe didn't say it, I didn't want to take it upon myself, but I'm just telling it to you now.\" So she said, \"You know what? I'll I'll do it.\" And that was the last I heard before Shabbos because I it was so late, so close to Shabbos, I didn't know what happened. The whole Shabbos, I was worried, I didn't know what's going to happen. Motzaei Shabbos, right after Shabbos, my wife calls me, this is what happened: he was bleeding inside and he was getting he ready was in a almost beginning to go into a coma. He was in obviously in intensive care. She said to the nurse, \"I want to go in and I want to say something to him.\" So they let her in, she comes in to him, he opened his eyes and she turns around to him and said in my name that I said that I think that the Rebbe wants that you put on ליובאוויטשער תפילין, \"Do you accept upon yourself to start putting on ליובאוויטשער תפילין?\" So as much as he could, he shook his head. Within five minutes the doctors stopped the bleeding and after Shabbos already things were getting much better. Sunday my brother-in-law wrote into the Rebbe the whole story that this is what then, this is what happened, and the Rebbe's answer was when he wrote that he took upon himself to put on ליובאוויטשער תפילין, so the Rebbe added, \"And his Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin should also be ליובאוויטשער תפילין. And בכלל putting on tefillin, and especially Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin, is a segulah for a refuah. It helps for a cure, so he should put on.\" And he put on, and Baruch Hashem from that on, this is already 20 years ago, ברוך השם, עד אריכות ימים ושנים טובות, ישועות, lived till 120, and this is all from Rashi's, and what the Rebbe answered was he should also put on Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin, ליובאוויטשער תפילין. But those are different customs, but generally speaking, what the concept, what tefillin is, it brings down the light of Hashem from חכמה, בינה down to the מדות stronger than normal, and automatically when it comes down into this world, we get the stronger light and it helps us accomplish what we're supposed to accomplish spiritually. I just want to mention a few more, just for two more minutes, a few small רמזים, hints, that we find concerning the mitzvah of tefillin. One of the things, it says that why is it that we have five pieces of parchment in the tefillin, four in the shel rosh and one in the shel yad? So the five pieces of parchment are כנגד the five chumashim. And just like in chumash we have the first four is one category and the fifth is another category, so too we have four and one. And it says why do we have a ש on the tefillin? Because we put on tefillin 300 days a year. How many days a year are there? Well, in our cycle, our calendar, which is a lunar calendar, there are 354 or 55 days. Actually, the word שנה, which is a year, is ש-נ-ה, which is 355. Take off 50 שבתים, 50 Shabbos's, and then another five days of Yom Tov. Now, there are more than five days Yom Tov, but many days of Yom Tov are on Shabbos anyway. So it comes out about five days of Yom Tov. So together, if you take off 55 days, we're left with 300 days. And we put on 300 days a year, we put on tefillin. Then it also says that the two ש's, ש and ש, ש is גימטריא 300, two ש's is 600. Two ש's make up the word שש. שש is six, so that's 606. Now the two ש's have seven lines, because there one is with three, one is with four. So 606 plus another seven is 613. So the mitzvah of tefillin has a connection, the ש has a connection to the 613 mitzvot, to all תרי״ג mitzvot. Then it says the three and the four, the three on one side and the four on the other side, is כנגד the three אבות and the four אמהות: אברהם, יצחק, and יעקב, and שרה, רבקה, רחל, and לאה, the three fathers and the four mothers. Then in Kabbalah it says that why are the straps black? Because black shows something that's not light, it's not clear, that something is beyond our understanding, because there are so many secrets in the mitzvah of tefillin, that everything that I said now is nothing, I wouldn't say a drop in the bucket, a a tip of the iceberg, it's nothing. nothing, nothing compared to all the deep כוונות and things על פי קבלה that we accomplish to putting on tefillin. Actually, concerning the black, it says that we we speaking before about tefillin being mamshich, bring down the light, bringing down the light from חכמה, בינה, דעת, it says actually it goes to the level of כתר דאצילות which is much higher. And the level of כתר it says is connected to the level called ישת חושך סתרו, it's a level where darkness because the light is so strong that it darkens, and this חושך is represented by the רצועות which are black, because they have to be black. And so many more other סימנים and רמזים that we have in the mitzvah of tefillin. But the main thing of the mitzvah of tefillin is that this is a mitzvah, and it's a mitzvah that Hashem commanded us to do, and we have to do it because He said, and we have to have the kavanah in mind that by putting on tefillin we give ourselves over to Hashem. And a person who puts on tefillin in the morning with the proper kavanah has a different day. The whole day is different. And the truth is, unfortunately, we don't really feel it so much, but so many people that through מבצע תפילין, you stop them in the street, and the bachurim and the yungelait who stop people to put on tefillin, so many have commented that the day that I put on tefillin, my whole day is different. Some say, \"My whole day is different, I make more money.\" Some say, \"My whole day is different, I feel holier, my whole approach to life is different.\" Like there was one guy, just let me finish with this, there was a place where they there was a stand of tefillin, and the guy would walk by, and they would first few days they saw him, he put on tefillin. Then, a few days later, he stopped. They stopped him, \"No, I don't want to put on tefillin.\" And they didn't know why. So afterwards they asked him why. So he said, \"I'll tell you the truth. From here, I would go to Burger King to eat. But that after the third day, when I put on tefillin, I couldn't eat there. I couldn't eat there, it's just ס'איז מיר נישט אריינגעגאנגען, like I I would choke on it. So I stopped putting on tefillin.\" Anyway, this guy eventually became a baal teshuvah, because they told him, \"In that case, you really see what tefillin is. In other words, you could use the reverse. Obviously, tefillin has such a strong power.\" So he started putting on tefillin every day, and then from tefillin he went to kashrut and every- and he became a frum yid. But this is the power of tefillin. And when we put on tefillin, our tefillin, Hashem puts on His tefillin, and in our tefillin it says שמע ישראל ה׳ אלקינו ה׳ אחד, השם is one, it says in the Gemara, Hashem's tefillin it says that there is nobody like us. We show the greatness of Hashem, Hashem shows the greatness of us, and together, the greatness of the Hashem and the Yidden, and automatically the Torah come together, and that will bring Mashiach, when the world will recognize the truth that Hashem and the Yidden and the Torah are all one. Yes.

Right. Well, I I mentioned right in the beginning, the women are any מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא, any mitzvah that has a time limit, women are exempt. But that doesn't mean that anything everything that it says about tefillin doesn't apply to the women. They just don't have to do it physically, and by their husband doing it, their father doing it, their brother doing it, by the men doing it, it gives them the same power. Like there are certain mitzvot that the women do that have such great spiritual power and we don't do. But we don't say that we're missing what they do, we're not missing anything. We have a share in what they do, like say, lighting the Shabbos candles, for instance. So, על פי קבלה it brings down such great light from Hashem, all kinds of things. We have a share in the mitzvah that they do. The mitzvah of טהרת המשפחה. They do it, and it's such great things spoken about טהרת המשפחה. We have a part in what they do, we share, it goes together. But for specific reasons, Hashem gave us certain mitzvot to do, and they share with us, and certain things they do, and we share with them. But it's all one unit, and whatever we accomplish, they have a part in it, too. I'll tell you even more. I remember once, when the Rebbe just started with מבצע תפילין, going out to put on tefillin, the Rebbe said by a farbrengen, he said that he got a letter from some women complaining that we can't participate in מבצע תפילין, because we can't go out and see that people put on tefillin. So the Rebbe said, first of all, there's a certain way you could participate, by giving money to buy tefillin that people should have, so you have a part in the mitzvah of tefillin that these people put on. And then the Rebbe said, besides that, if you have a share in the מבצע תפילין without actually doing it, by you it's greater than by the men, because when you do a mitzvah, sometimes you don't do it a hundred percent, sometimes you don't do it properly, sometimes there's something lacking, so your mitzvah is not always the best way possible. But the women who don't do it, and Hashem considers it as if they did it, He certainly doesn't consider it as if they did it halfway. If He considers as if they did it, it's a hundred percent. So they have a hundred percent the sechar, or the accomplishment of tefillin, and we have whatever we do. If we do it properly, we have it properly, if not, not. Yes. Rashi's daughters. Very few, but they did. Why? They felt they wanted to do the mitzvah, they were not mechuyav. It's like many other mitzvot that women are not obligated, and women do. Here's an example: shofar. Women are not obligated to hear shofar on Rosh Hashanah. Most women don't like to hear that, but it's a fact, they're not obligated. Nevertheless, they took it upon themselves, and it says they should hear. So much so that if not for that, you wouldn't be able to blow for them, because if not for the mitzvah, you're not allowed to blow shofar on Yom Tov, and Rosh Hashanah is Yom Tov. But it's because they're allowed to do the mitzvah, even if they're not obligated, you're allowed to blow for them. The ד' מינים, אתרוג and lulav, they're not obligated, but they do it. Tefillin happens to be one of those mitzvot that even though they're able to do it, the custom is that they don't. But if a woman wants to First of all, we would discourage it. But if there are specific women who had the feeling that they wanted to do it, they let them do it because they feel closer to the mitzvah. But that doesn't mean that those who don't do it are lacking anything. But they actually did it. Yes? The I'm not going to go into specific, but the the point is how you write the parshiyot. When you write the four parshiyot, you have to write them in a certain order. And when you put them into the tefillin, it's put in a certain order. And according to and the difference between Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam is which order to write it and which order to put it in. So if you'll open it up, you'll see inside the parshiyot, they're different in in the two tefillin. But that's the main difference, and then smaller ones. That's just a סימן. Yeah, but it's also because where this the string is supposed to be between two parshiyot, and by Rashi the same two parshiyot are here, and according to Rabbeinu Tam it's here, and that's why the strings are in different place. But that's only a סימן, really. Okay. There are two more opinions, not so popular opinions, in how to write the tefillin. And one was the opinion of the Shimusha Rabba, and one was the opinion of the Raavad. But these are not accepted opinions. The Rabbeinu Tam's opinion was not the halacha, but it's accepted. But those two are not even accepted, but nevertheless, they are two opinions. According to kabbalah, they are also very high level, but they're so high that most people can't shouldn't put them on. Great, great tzadikim could put them on to make sure they're doing the mitzvah according to those opinions too. And spiritually, they accomplish great spiritual things and reach higher spiritual worlds, which most people don't. That's why only the Rebbe and people like that would put on the four pairs. But it's also difference is the order of how the parshiyot are written. They wear Rashi's only. Because that's the halacha! That's the halacha. No, not only accepted, that's halacha! But Rabbeinu Tam's is not the halacha, even though it's a major opinion. See, the other ones are not major opinions. But Rabbeinu Tam is a major opinion, but it's not the halacha. So therefore, anybody who puts on Rashi's tefillin has fulfilled the halacha. But according to the opinion of Rabbeinu Tam, he did not fulfill the halacha. And since this is a major opinion, we want to be yotzei that opinion also. But also, על פי קבלה, this is something that we have to do. Yes. Oh, I wouldn't I know, I wouldn't let's say, there is something there, some spiritual thing in putting it on, but that's not the mitzvah. Truth is that if he doesn't know, it's not the mitzvah. Now, you could ask the same question, what about us? Do we think every day exactly when we put on tefillin all the kavanot? But you could say that since we have that kavanah in mind, so every time you put it on, it's נגרר. It follows, like it says in Shulchan Aruch about shofar. It says when you when you want to fulfill a mitzvah, you have to have in mind to do the mitzvah. So if you come to shul to hear shofar, so it says you have to have in mind to fulfill the mitzvah of shofar. So it says if you went to shul with the intention of hearing shofar, when you came to shul, you sat there, you didn't think about it, you just listened and So it says it doesn't matter, because since originally that was your kavanah, what you're doing now is נגרר, shlept zich after that kavanah. The same thing here, also. We know this kavanah, so when we put it on, automatically. But if somebody doesn't know, it's like a A person who did it in a coma? Oh, sure, I wouldn't wait for him to wake up. For sure. Huh? No, if a person knows it, and doesn't have the direct specific, but, but you have to have the general intent you have to have. Remember, please, next week we are not here.