Why Do Jews Wear Tefillin? A Bible Study
Taught with Parashat Bo, which holds two of the four passages inside tefillin (Exodus 13:1–16). Six short parts, each ending with a quick quiz and questions for reflection, then an FAQ and review questions. Part of our free B’nei Mitzvah self-study lessons.
Quick answer: Jews wear tefillin because the Torah commands it four times: bind God’s words “as a sign on your hand” and “between your eyes” (Exodus 13:9, 16; Deuteronomy 6:8; 11:18). Archaeologists have found tefillin more than 2,000 years old. In Revelation, God’s servants are sealed with His Name on their foreheads, and we teach that tefillin, and the Torah they stand for, are that seal.
Studying on your own?
Read each part, take the quizzes, and answer the reflection questions and the review questions at the end. Have a question? Book a private guidance session with your Rabbi or Morah on Zoom by texting (469) 608-9944. See the fees.
What are tefillin?
Tefillin (also called phylacteries) are two small black leather boxes with leather straps. Each box holds handwritten parchment with four Torah passages. One is tied on the upper arm, facing the heart. The other is placed on the head, above the forehead. They are worn during weekday morning prayers.
Who is this study for?
This study is for anyone who has asked, “Why do we do this?” That includes a boy getting ready for his bar mitzvah, a parent, or a new member of a Messianic congregation. Asking why is a good thing. In Deuteronomy 6:20, a son asks his father what God’s commands mean, and the father is told to explain, not to say “Because I said so.”
This study answers that question in six parts. Each part ends with a quick quiz and questions for personal reflection or group discussion.
| Part | Question | Main texts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Where does the Bible command tefillin? | Exodus 13; Deuteronomy 6, 11 |
| 2 | What do the sages say they mean? | Talmud, Rambam, Shulchan Arukh |
| 3 | How do we know Jews wore them long ago? | Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus |
| 4 | Did Yeshua wear them? | Matthew 23:5 |
| 5 | Are tefillin the seal of God? | Exodus 12–13; Ezekiel 9; Revelation 7, 13, 14 |
| 6 | How do you put them on? | Siddur, blessings, Hosea 2 |
Where does the Bible command tefillin?
Quick answer: Four times, in Exodus 13:9, 13:16, Deuteronomy 6:8 and 11:18. Each time God says to bind His words as a sign on the hand and between the eyes.
The Torah commands tefillin four times: Exodus 13:9, Exodus 13:16, Deuteronomy 6:8 and Deuteronomy 11:18. Each time, God tells Israel to bind His words as a sign on the hand and between the eyes. These same four passages are the ones written on the parchments inside the boxes. Wearing tefillin means wearing the very commands to wear them.
| # | Passage | What it is about | Key verse |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Exodus 13:1–10 | Remember the Exodus; the firstborn belong to God | “It shall be a sign on your hand and a memorial between your eyes” (v. 9) |
| 2 | Exodus 13:11–16 | Teach your son why the firstborn are redeemed | “A sign on your hand and frontlets between your eyes” (v. 16) |
| 3 | Deuteronomy 6:4–9 (the Shema) | Love God with all your heart, soul and strength | “Bind them as a sign on your hand” (v. 8) |
| 4 | Deuteronomy 11:13–21 | Obedience brings blessing; teach your children | “Bind these words… as a sign on your hand” (v. 18) |
Passed from parent to child. Three of the four passages talk about teaching children (Exodus 13:8 and 13:14, Deuteronomy 6:7 and 11:19). Tefillin were meant to be handed down from one generation to the next.
Why the hand and the head? The hand stands for what we do. The head stands for what we think and want. Wearing God’s words on both says, “Everything I do and everything I think belongs to God.” The arm box faces the heart, so the heart is included too.
Isn’t it just a figure of speech? Proverbs 3:3 and 7:3 use similar words as a word-picture, so some people ask whether Deuteronomy 6:8 is only a picture too. As far back as we have evidence, the Jewish people read it as both: a real object on the body and a call to change the heart. Part 3 shows real tefillin more than 2,000 years old. The object was never meant to replace the heart. It was meant to train it.
Quick quiz: Part 1
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Reflection
- Read Deuteronomy 6:4–9. List every place God’s words are supposed to go (heart, children, conversation, hand, head, doorposts). Which ones are already part of your life?
- Why might God have chosen the hand and the head?
- Exodus 13:14 begins, “When your son asks you…” What does that say about asking questions?
What do the Jewish sages say tefillin mean?
Quick answer: The sages teach that tefillin bind a person to God, guard against sin, and give both the mind and the heart to serving Him.
The Torah gives the command; Jewish tradition explains how to keep it and what it does to the person who keeps it. Here are five sources worth knowing.
| Source | What it teaches |
|---|---|
| Talmud, Berakhot 6a | God Himself is pictured wearing tefillin. Ours say, “Hear O Israel, Hashem is One.” His say, “Who is like Your people Israel, one nation on earth?” (1 Chronicles 17:21). We bind ourselves to Him, and He binds Himself to us. |
| Talmud, Menachot 43b | Whoever has tefillin on his head and arm, tzitzit on his garment and a mezuzah on his door is protected from sin, like a soldier in armor. |
| Talmud, Shabbat 49a | When Rome made tefillin a crime punishable by death, Elisha kept wearing them. Caught by a soldier, he hid them in his hand. When he opened it, they had become a dove’s wings. He was called “Elisha of the Wings.” |
| Rambam, Hilkhot Tefillin 4:25 | As long as tefillin are on a man’s head and arm, he is humble and God-fearing, is not drawn to silliness or empty talk, and turns his thoughts to truth and righteousness. |
| Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 25:5 | The arm tefillin face the heart and the head tefillin sit over the brain, so a person gives both his desires and his thoughts to serving God. |
A costly gift. Elisha risked his life for the same straps we wear today. Jews under Rome, the Inquisition and the Soviet Union kept tefillin hidden in their homes, and many paid for it. Today most of us can put them on at home with no danger at all.
The armor picture in the Brit Hadashah. Ephesians 6:14–17 describes the “belt of truth” and the “helmet of salvation,” and calls God’s word a sword. Shaul (Paul) was a Pharisee trained by Gamaliel and very likely wore tefillin on his arm and head every weekday morning. It is not hard to hear an echo.
Quick quiz: Part 2
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Reflection
- In Berakhot 6a, God “wears” tefillin with His people written inside. How does that change the way you see tefillin?
- The Rambam lists four things tefillin keep a person from. Which one is hardest for you?
- What would you have done in Elisha’s place?
How do we know Jews wore tefillin in ancient times?
Quick answer: Real tefillin more than 2,000 years old were found with the Dead Sea Scrolls, and ancient writers describe them.
Tefillin are not a medieval invention. Archaeology, ancient historians and the New Testament all show the same practice.
| When | Evidence | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| c. 2nd century BCE | Letter of Aristeas §159 | A Jewish writer in Greek explains that the Law orders a sign to be fastened on the hands. |
| c. 150 BCE – 68 CE | Dead Sea Scrolls, Qumran | At least two dozen tefillin parchments, plus leather cases and straps, were found in the caves in the 1950s. In 2014 archaeologist Yonatan Adler found nine more tiny scrolls still rolled up inside cases from Caves 4 and 5. Scholar Lawrence Schiffman called them tefillin from over 2,100 years ago, showing strong continuity with later Judaism. (Times of Israel) |
| c. 30 CE | Matthew 23:5 | Yeshua mentions phylacteries as something people in Judea already wore. |
| c. 93 CE | Josephus, Antiquities 4.213 | The Jewish historian says Jews bear God’s commands on their heads and arms. |
| c. 135 CE | Wadi Murabba’at caves | A tefillin parchment from the time of the Bar Kokhba revolt was found among refugees’ belongings. |
Older tefillin in Yemen. Bar-Ilan researcher Zohar Amar studied old tefillin that Yemenite Jews used until they moved to Israel. They were slightly different from today’s, and many communities, including in Europe, made tefillin in similar ways until about 200 years ago (Amar, 2019).
The point: anyone who puts on tefillin today joins a long line: the Qumran community, Josephus, the Jews of Yeshua’s day, Elisha of the Wings and the Jews of Yemen.
Quick quiz: Part 3
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Reflection
- Which piece of evidence surprised you most? Why?
- Why does it matter that tefillin were already worn before Yeshua’s time?
Did Yeshua (Jesus) wear tefillin?
Quick answer: The Gospels do not describe him putting them on, but Yeshua was a Torah-keeping Jew, and his only criticism of tefillin was about showing off, not about wearing them.
Matthew 23:5. Yeshua criticizes leaders who “make broad their phylacteries” to be seen by others. He does not say to stop wearing them. He says not to wear them to look holy. In the same chapter he says the scribes and Pharisees “sit in Moses’ seat,” so do what they teach from it (23:2–3).
A Torah-keeping Jew. Yeshua kept the Torah, went up to Jerusalem for the feasts, and said he did not come to destroy the Torah (Matthew 5:17). His disciples, like Shaul, kept the customs of their people. Nothing in the Gospels suggests he set tefillin aside.
This shows the right way to wear tefillin: not to impress anyone, but to remember God and obey Him.
Quick quiz: Part 4
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Reflection
- In Matthew 23:5, what exactly was the problem? Could we make the same mistake today?
- Why does Yeshua tell his followers to do what is taught from “Moses’ seat” (Matthew 23:2–3)?
Are tefillin the seal of God in Revelation?
Quick answer: We believe so. In Revelation, God seals His servants with His Name on their foreheads, and the Torah puts His words on the hand and between the eyes. The parchments inside tefillin carry God’s Name, written by hand, so tefillin, and the Torah they stand for, are that seal. The mark of the beast is its counterfeit.
The seal is a Name. In Revelation, God’s seal is always His Name on the forehead: “Hurt not the earth… till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads” (Revelation 7:3), and the 144,000 have “his Father’s name written in their foreheads” (Revelation 14:1; see also 22:4). Moshe told Israel, “All people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of Hashem” (Deuteronomy 28:10), and Rabbi Eliezer the Great taught that this verse means the tefillin of the head (Berakhot 6a). The letter shin on the head box stands for God’s Name, Shaddai.
The Name is written inside, too. The seal is not only a letter on the outside of the box. The four parchments inside are written by hand by a scribe, and God’s holy Name is written in them again and again. The Shema alone has it twice: “Hear, O Israel: Hashem our God, Hashem is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). So a person wearing tefillin has his Father’s Name written, quite literally, on his forehead, just as Revelation 14:1 describes. Jewish tradition adds that the letters on the outside spell the Name as well: the shin on the box, the dalet-shaped knot at the back of the head, and the yud-shaped knot on the arm make Shaddai (שַׁדַּי).
A sign that protects. Tefillin are first commanded in Exodus 13, right after the Passover, when the blood on the doorposts was a “token” and the destroyer passed over (Exodus 12:13, 23). In Ezekiel 9:4–6, a mark is set “upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry” over the evil around them, and the destroyers are told, “come not near any man upon whom is the mark.” In Revelation 9:4, those who have “the seal of God in their foreheads” are protected. The Talmud says Ezekiel’s mark was the letter tav, and that “the seal of the Holy One, blessed be He, is truth [emet]” (Shabbat 55a).
Firstborn and firstfruits. Both tefillin passages in Exodus 13 are about the firstborn, who belong to God (13:2, 11–16). The 144,000 who carry His Name are called “the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb” (Revelation 14:4).
The counterfeit. The beast’s mark also goes “in their right hand, or in their foreheads” (Revelation 13:16), but it is a copy turned backwards. Tefillin go on the weaker hand, near the heart (Menachot 37a–b); the mark goes on the right hand. God’s seal is a Name; the mark is a number. The Greek words show the difference too: God’s sphragis is a seal of ownership and protection, while the beast’s charagma is a brand, like the ones burned onto cattle or slaves.
What really matters. Someone learning to spot counterfeit money studies the real bills, not the fakes. We don’t need to worry about exactly what the mark of the beast is. If we know what belongs on our forehead and our hand, God’s Name and His commandments, we know what doesn’t. Revelation says it just after the mark: “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Yeshua” (Revelation 14:12).
For everyone. Tefillin are the sign; the seal is what they hold: “these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart” (Deuteronomy 6:6). A girl or woman who keeps God’s words in her heart and does them with her hands carries the same seal.
Go deeper: our Hoshana Rabbah shiur Sealed for Life: The Mark of the Beast and the Seal of God traces the seal from the Passover blood and Ezekiel’s tav to tefillin and the counterfeit.
Quick quiz: Part 5
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Reflection
- Read Revelation 7:3 and 14:1. What is written on the foreheads of God’s servants?
- List the ways the mark of the beast is a backwards copy of God’s seal.
- What would it look like to have God’s Name on your mind and His commandments in your hands during an ordinary school day?
How do you put on tefillin?
Quick answer: Arm first, then head, then wrap the hand and fingers, saying the blessings from the siddur.
Put on the tallit first (see our tallit and tzitzit study), then the arm tefillin, then the head tefillin, and finish by wrapping the hand. Tefillin are worn on weekday mornings, not on Shabbat or festivals. Customs differ a little between communities, so follow your congregation’s siddur.
The arm tefillin
- Roll up your sleeve. Place the box on the upper arm of your weaker arm (the left arm for right-handed people), just below the shoulder muscle, tilted toward the heart.
- Say: Barukh atah Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha’olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu l’haniach tefillin. (“Blessed are You… who commanded us to put on tefillin.”)
- Tighten the knot, then wrap the strap seven times around the forearm. Do not talk from here until the head tefillin are on.
The head tefillin
- Place the box above the forehead at the hairline, centered between the eyes. The knot sits at the back of the head, and the straps hang down in front.
- If your siddur includes it, say the second blessing (…al mitzvat tefillin), followed by Barukh shem k’vod malkhuto l’olam va’ed.
The hand and fingers
- Wrap the arm strap three times around the middle finger while saying Hosea 2:21–22 (2:19–20 in English): “I will betroth you to Me forever… in righteousness and justice, in love and mercy… in faithfulness, and you shall know Hashem.”
- Wrap the rest around the hand so the strap forms the Hebrew letter shin (ש), for Shaddai, God Almighty.
The deepest answer to “why.” The finger wrap is like a wedding ring. Every morning, the person wearing tefillin is telling God, “I am Yours.”
To take them off, go in reverse: unwrap the fingers, remove the head tefillin, then the arm tefillin. Put them back in their bag with care.
A good place to start: put on tefillin each weekday morning and say the Shema while wearing them. It takes about fifteen minutes. It may feel awkward at first, and that is normal.
Quick quiz: Part 6
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Frequently asked questions
Are tefillin and phylacteries the same thing?
Yes. “Phylacteries” is the English word for tefillin. It comes from the Greek phylaktērion, meaning a guard or protection, and it is the word used in Matthew 23:5. “Tefillin” comes from the Hebrew word for prayer, tefillah.
At what age do Jewish boys start wearing tefillin?
Jewish boys begin wearing tefillin at their bar mitzvah, at age 13, when they become responsible for keeping the commandments. Many start practicing a month or two before so they are comfortable by the big day.
Do women wear tefillin?
Most Jewish authorities teach that women are not required to wear tefillin, because it is a commandment tied to a set time of day, but many allow it. At Benei Avraham, girls are encouraged to wrap tefillin and pray in them at least once.
What is the seal of God in Revelation?
It is God’s Name on the foreheads of His servants (Revelation 7:3; 14:1). We teach that tefillin, and the Torah they stand for, are that seal: God’s words between the eyes and on the hand (Deuteronomy 6:8), with His Name written on the parchments inside. The mark of the beast is a backwards copy of it (Revelation 13:16).
Why are tefillin not worn on Shabbat?
The Torah calls Shabbat itself a “sign” between God and Israel (Exodus 31:13). Since tefillin are also a sign, the sages taught that they are not needed on Shabbat and biblical festivals (Talmud, Menachot 36b).
Why are tefillin black and square?
The Talmud teaches that black straps and square boxes are a “law given to Moses at Sinai,” passed down by tradition rather than written in the Torah (Menachot 35a). This is one example of how the written Torah and Jewish tradition work together.
Is wearing tefillin legalism?
No. Legalism is trying to earn God’s love by rules. Tefillin are a response to God’s love, a way to remember Him. Yeshua said he did not come to abolish the Torah (Matthew 5:17–19). His warning in Matthew 23:5 was about showing off, not about obeying.
Review questions
After working through this study, you should be able to answer “Why do Jews wear tefillin?” in three sentences, without notes. These questions will help.
- Name the four Torah passages inside tefillin.
- Give two pieces of evidence that Jews wore tefillin before or during Yeshua’s time.
- What was Yeshua’s problem in Matthew 23:5, and what was not the problem?
- Where does Revelation say God’s seal goes, and how is the mark of the beast different?
- What does the Hosea verse said during the finger wrap mean to you?
When the reasons are clear, tefillin stop being something we have to wear and become something we get to wear.
Sources
- Times of Israel, “Uncovered in Jerusalem, 9 tiny unopened Dead Sea Scrolls”: timesofisrael.com
- Biblical Archaeology Society, “Qumran Phylacteries Reveal Nine New Dead Sea Scrolls”: biblicalarchaeology.org
- Zohar Amar, Tefillin of Yemenite Jews (Bar-Ilan, 2019): cris.biu.ac.il
- Wikipedia, “Tefillin”: Tefillin
- Benei Avraham, Sealed for Life: The Mark of the Beast and the Seal of God (Hoshana Rabbah 5787)
- Classical texts (look up on Sefaria): Talmud Berakhot 6a, Menachot 35a, 36b, 37a–b and 43b, Shabbat 49a and 55a; Rambam, Hilkhot Tefillin 4:25; Shulchan Arukh OC 25:5; Josephus, Antiquities 4.213; Letter of Aristeas 159
Scripture quotations follow the King James Version, with Hashem for the Divine Name (LORD), Hebrew names such as Shaul (Paul), and Yeshua for Jesus. Rabbinic sources are given in short translation or paraphrase. Part of the Bar & Bat Mitzvah training at Benei Avraham; see our Statement of Faith.