Bondage and Liberation
Putting on tefillin to modern sensibilities seems like the most primitive of Jewish practices. Many of us who have walked the streets of New York or some other major city may have been accosted by a Chabadnik asking us if we were Jewish and if so, would we put on tefillin with them, an encounter that may only have confirmed our notion of how arcane and primitive the ritual is. After all, you bind yourself with almost-raw black leather thongs to hold black boxes – tribal fetishes– in a certain configuration on your head and constricting your left arm so the arm box presses into your heart. You wind the leather fairly tightly until you are truly bound. Whaaa? The modern media is fond of the image of a Chasid wearing tallis and tefillin when they want to celebrate diversity or tacitly attest to the weirdness of ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Continue reading “Black Boxes:”
Telepathy 