By Emily Rebenstock
Normally Sundays are trip days; but on this Sunday we were told to meet in our normal classroom for a special guest speaker. We were told that this speaker was coming all the way from Tzfat to work with us, and that our time with him would be a unique opportunity to create and learn with a Rabbi who was different than most of our previous speakers. Rav Noah looked like any religious man that you would find on the street; long white beard, black suit and large Kipah on his head. But after spending time getting to know him, we learned that his ideologies and willingness to engage with us were unique in his community. Once he got started, Rav Noah explained that his goal was to help each of us create our own kosher Tefillin and to teach us about the importance of Tefillin in a Jewish person’s life. As someone who grew up in the conservative Jewish community, I was very familiar with what Tefillin were and how they are used. Although I’ve watched my male friends put on Tefillin for years at camp, but it never was something that I personally engaged in and I was incredibly excited about the opportunity to try for myself. Through our learning, I was surprised at how many of the other fellows had never even seen Tefillin before. This added aspect made the whole experience so much more interesting and I was so grateful to be learning with them.
After spending time discussing why Jews use tefillin and where the tradition came from, it was time to actually make our own. Rav Noah showed us the parchment paper that the tefillin boxes would be made from and gave us each two pieces of oddly shaped parchment paper. In that moment, there was no way I could picture that those pieces of paper, with holes and lines all over it, would become the boxes that traditional Tefillin look like. Rav Noah explained that everything we did throughout this process needed to be “L-shem Keddushas Tefillin”, or with the intent of making Tefillin. He insisted that our work be focused and in the spirit of creating a holy vessel for connection to G-d. I thought this concept was so special because I can recall so many things I do in my everyday life that just happen without my specific intent, however in order for this to be done properly, I needed to do with a certain distinction. In the spirit of creating kosher tefillin, we each took turns pounding our parchment and spray-painting them all with the help of Rav Noah. I appreciated how open-minded he was and I was excited to see that everyone was engaging with him as well.
At the end of our morning with him, Rav Noah reminded us that we still have a lot of work to do together to complete the project. I left the session feeling excited embark on our weekend in Tzfat and prepared to spend time completing our Tefillin.
