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May 26, 2009
Tefillin in your travel kit
This is the story as told to me by an occasional commenter..
This guy at work is a secular Jew. Yet when he travels, wherever he goes, he tales along a pair of tefillin.
Why? He does not wear them when he is in Israel, nor does he don them when he is traveling. he simply takes them along. So why does he bother?
His father told him (a long time ago), that whenever he travels he should take his tefillin along. So he does.
On the one hand he is an idiot. On the other, at least he is thinking about his tefillin and he knows they have some sort of importance - the pintele yid, as we call it, keeps it in the front of his mind.
This guy at work is a secular Jew. Yet when he travels, wherever he goes, he tales along a pair of tefillin.
Why? He does not wear them when he is in Israel, nor does he don them when he is traveling. he simply takes them along. So why does he bother?
His father told him (a long time ago), that whenever he travels he should take his tefillin along. So he does.
On the one hand he is an idiot. On the other, at least he is thinking about his tefillin and he knows they have some sort of importance - the pintele yid, as we call it, keeps it in the front of his mind.
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pintele yid
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Why would you call him an idiot??
ReplyDeleteHe's at least got respect for teffilin but just uninformed as to the larger picture. This is a very sincere act on his part regarding tradition- something unique about Israelis!
It's a lucky charm. Reminds me of the gemara (in Sanhedrin I think?) of the Tana who would go to another Tana (maybe it was Rebbe - Rabbi Yehuda?) and ask for a kemiya each time before he traveled to Medinat Hayam (outside of Israel).
ReplyDeleteE - you're looking at the other hand. On the first hand, as Rafi pointed out, he's an idiot.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the story I heard about some lady who ate shrimp all year round except on Pesach because the particular shrimps that she bought had a chametzdik coating.
ReplyDeleteAs they say "Go Figure".
Maybe it is the pintele yid.
I think Idiot is a bit harsh. There are many jews who simply don't know. They eat treif , but make a seder. I know a family who has beer at the seder, but they make one anyway.
ReplyDeleteconfused, ignorant, sad even, but not an idiot.
The concept of tinok shenishba means nothing to you?
ReplyDeleteThis is very common, especially among Israelis of Sephardi descent. A common pickup line of Israeli moving guys in NYC trying to pick up an MO girl is "Ani meniach tefillin kol yom".
why call him an idiot?
ReplyDeleteAl Tadun es chavercha ad she'tagia l'mkomo.
I thought this was a liberal blog... (except being right wing on the Israel political spectrum)
perhaps the term was inappropriate, but it was really meant to be read in a humorous tone.. I guess it did not come out that way...
ReplyDeletewe're a very serious bunch here! You can't get away with anything! ;)
ReplyDeletethat's ok Raf, we know you're just an idiot......... :)
ReplyDeleteActually, upon relating this story to an aquaintance, he sent me later on that the sefer Kaf Hachaim- a halchik work based on the Shulchan Aruch quotes that travelling with Tefillin is actually a segula to protect against robbers, drowning and other dangers. So I guess this is what this guy was doing even though he didn't put them on.
ReplyDelete