RAMBAM: Write Tefillin Right- Hilchot Tefillin, Mezuzot & Sefer Torah (2)

Write the Teffilin correctly (if I have to tell you this, then there are problems. This isn't an art project and you are not using paper mache for this): 4 on 4 different claf which get rolled up, for the head and the 4 parshiot on one klaf for the hand. The way I have seen many of you smoking, you should have no problem with that.

Start the Parshas at their correct spots, and you put in vav’s and yud’s where needed. This is not a creative free for all. This is tradition. This is not a 'dot your "i"s and cross your "t"s' kind of thing. We do not cross things here. This is the Torah. Do not add where they are not supposed to be either. 'Oh, that looks like a good spot for a vav.' That is why we have a 'Machberet;' those little notebooks for people like yourself to misspell as much as you want. A little notebook for you the unholy to write their diaries about their day, with all the crossed 't's they want. 

All this stuff makes it Pasul (invalid you incorrigible insolent).

Make sure you add crowns to letters, where they are supposed to be. You see how we crown and don't cross?! If the crown is not there, we do not invalidate your sloppy work. We are not your third grade teacher. We are just people trying to not mess up a good Tefilling rolling here. Imagine if your Tefillin are rolled perfectly, only to learn later that you have a crossed crown. It makes you feel less good about that role.

Once you got them, and you made sure they were kosher, you do not have to check them again. Ever. If there is a reason,  like they started coming apart, then checking might be called for. But if not, you don’t have to worry that things went bad. Even so, if your life is going real bad, and lets say you are old as hell and not married, maybe check them. Every Bracha I have ever heard in a story was only because the Lubavitcher Rebbe told them to check their Tefillin.

Hillel apparently wore his grandfather’s teffilin and didn’t check them. I will put down my money that Shamai would have had something to say about that.