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The Phylacteries of Dialogue 鈥� 转驻讬诇讬谉 讛讚讬讗诇讜讙

Benjamin Z. Rudski 讘谞讬诪讬谉 爪讘讬 专讜讚住拽讬

Introduction:

In Jewish prayer, there is a daily ritual of putting on phylacteries, known in Hebrew as Tefillin 转驻讬诇讬谉. These phylacteries consist of two leather boxes, which each contain passages from the Torah, our sacred text. The first two of these passages come from the book of Exodus. After God frees the Israelites from enslavement in Egypt, He commands them to remember the Exodus and to tie this memory for eternity to their arms and place it between their eyes. The other two passages containing similar instructions are the Shema prayer, derived from Deuteronomy. This prayer, which we recite twice daily, affirms our belief in God and is central to Judaism.

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When putting on Tefillin, I first place one box, the arm-phylactery or Tefillin shel yad, on my non-dominant (left) arm. I wrap the attached leather strap seven times around my forearm. Next, I place the other leather box, the head-phylactery or Tefillin shel Rosh, on my forehead, near my hairline and position it to be between my eyes. I pull the attached straps forward to be in front of my body. Finally, I take the remainder of the leather strap from the shel yad and wrap it around my left hand. In the Ashkenazi tradition, practiced by most Jews from Europe, the strap forms the letters 砖讚讬 Shaddai, a name of God that first appears in Genesis 17:1.

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In my poem, I use Tefillin as a metaphor for interfaith dialogue. I use the shel yad to represent connection to my own faith and the shel rosh to represent looking outward to the Other to learn about their faith. The two come together when the strap from the shel yad is tied, spelling out Shaddai. I have taken this holy name and assigned to each Hebrew letter a pillar of interfaith dialogue: difference, similarity and togetherness.

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The choice of this metaphor fulfills a verse from Psalms 122 that we say every Saturday as part of the Shabbat prayers:

状诇职诪址注址谉 讗址讞址讬 讜职专值注指讬 讗植讚址讘职旨专指讛志谞指旨讗 砖指讈诇讜止诐 讘指旨讱职状

鈥淔or my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say: 'Peace be within thee.'鈥�

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I call upon my Jewish brethren to understand that we should wrap ourselves in interfaith dialogue like we wrap with the Tefillin. For my non-Jewish companions, I hope to help you better understand our daily traditions, including our most intimate prayer rituals. By learning our differences and finding our similarities, we will be able to peacefully live together in understanding.

状讜职讛指讗直诪侄转 讜职讛址砖指旨讈诇讜止诐 讗直讛指讘讜旨状

鈥淸T]herefore love ye truth and peace.鈥�

-- .

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[1] . English is not a direct translation.

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Benjamin Rudski is a second year PhD student in the QLS program. He is an Ashkenazi Jew from Montreal.