RAMBAM: There are Rules- Tefillin, Mezuzot & Sefer Torah (3)

There are 8 laws, from Moshe at Sinai. There are more than that, but I figured if I told you 8, you might think you could keep all of them. These are laws dealing with Tefillin, and you probably already messed up half of them. Do you even know what they are? No. That is the problem.

You’ve got to make sure the boxes are square. You can't start making these circular, artistic Tzfat boxes, made out of wax. This is not origamy or papermiche. This is not a third grade art project. This is a mitzvah. 

Get the order right, that the first in the Torah is the first parsha and so on. Again, many of you have complained about the order of the Parshas. I am not one that can change that. I understand that many of you want to see Dvarim before Shemot. It would be cool, but the Torah was not made that way.

Make the part that the strap goes through the right way. We are not talking about a boat knot here.

The splits in the Tefillin of the head have to be seen. You see those little lines in there, don't try to fill in the gap. It is not a mistake.

A Talmud Chacham should know how to make the ‘Yud’ in the Tefillin. Yankel has down the whole Talmud. The guy can't use his hands for anything. Not a Talmud Chacham. Needs to call a handyman to put up his bookshelves. Not as smart as we thought.

All of the stuff, including the straps, should be black on the outside. I know the paint over bottle looks like whiteout. This does not mean that you can substitute that on it. The white goes well with black. I got it.We all love zebras. Blackout the straps. And stop sweating all over the Tefillin.

The Tefillin, like the parchment must also be made by a Jew. Mead notebooks cannot be used for everything in our religion.

You can make the Tefillin for the head, into the one used for the arm, but not the opposite way around. Why? Because the head one is holier. Maybe you don't understand this. Then look it up. Sometimes you have to do some research in order to be a Talmud Chacham. How abouot you spell it out for youself for once.

If the stuff starts to come apart, you put the strap in Geniza. The boxes, depends if they are new or old. You work with the new ones. You let the old ones die. Bury them (Geniza). You don't just throw things out that are important, like you did your education.