The Fearsomeness of Tefillin Shel Rosh - Automatic, or Conditional? A Closer Look, with Contemporary Angles, and Applications

Every once in a while, especially in difficult times perhaps, people bring up and promote an idea, based on a מאמר חז"ל, that wearing tefillin is a miraculous, magic solution for security and protection. This has been particularly put forth by some as a religious-mystical-magical protection solution for Yidden of ארץ ישראל, particularly those involved in the defense/security arena. The late, last Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe used it prominently in promotion of his new project dubbed "מבצע תפילין", before the Six-Day War, in which his followers were instructed to lay tefillin on qualified men who weren't otherwise putting them on (which continues now). 

Due to the prominent and ubiquitous nature of this belief, it is appropriate and desirable to examine and analyze it, to hopefully gain a proper grasp of it, בס"ד, and see if its popular understanding is correct or not.

At first glance, the idea seems sound, as the gemara (ברכות דף ו' ע"א) says on the posuk וראו כל עמי הארץ כי שם ה' נקרא עליך ויראו ממך - דברים פרק כח, פסוק י, that רבי אליעזר הגדול אומר אלו תפילין שבראש, this is a reference to tefillin of the head. 

The problem is however, that teaching and experience have told us that the matter is more complicated than may first seem.

Firstly, from a Chabad-Lubavitch angle alone, the founding Rebbe of Chabad, known in Lubavitch as the Alter Rebbe, actually is reported to have expressed a differing opinion about the efficacy of that action.

As related in a Chasidic tale by prominent Chabad-Lubavitch speaker R. Y.Y.  Jacobson in a talk a few months ago  -

"There's a געוואלדיגע מעשה  - when the Baal HaTanya, the first Lubavitcher Rebbe, was arrested by the Czarist government in תקנ"ט/1798, after Sukkos. So the messenger of the Czarist government came into his home and he was wearing tefillin. He came to arrest him and he (Alter Rebbe-AR) made with his hands, like this (motions with hand), and the man left. So one of his Chasidim was there, he said Rebbe, what happened? He (AR) says שטייט אין גמרא (it says in the gemara) ויראו ממך, they see sheim Hashem and they're afraid, so he left. He (Chasid) said Rebbe, I also put on tefillin, no one is afraid of me? So the Baal HaTanya, the Alter Rebbe, said עס שטייט נישט אלו תפילין שעל הראש, ס'שטייט אלו תפילין שבראש, the tefillin is not only on the head, it's inside the head. The tefillin is inside, its berosh."

(As an aside, R. Efrem Goldberg, in a recent article, attributed that vort to the Vilna Gaon. So who actually originated it is unclear)

So according to this, the protective quality is not automatically attained solely by external wearing of tefillin, rather it must be internalized, on a higher level.

There is a greater, more fundamental problem with the notion though, namely, that the whole idea, that one can take someone that is fundamentally lacking in שמירת תורה ומצות and make him fearsome solely via a fleeting הנחת תפילין, is seemingly not supported by the פרשה of the Torah where the words they purportedly base it on appear. There it says (start reading from the beginning of פרק כח) that if a person follows Torah and mitzvos generally, and then puts on tefillin shel rosh (according to the derasha in Chazal) the עמי הארץ will be afraid. But מכלל הן אתה שומע לאו, if the earlier pesukim are not followed, then the latter ones lack their foundation to rest upon. One cannot just take one posuk of a parsha and promote it out of context.

As an illustration of the type of person that might put on tefillin with Chabad, but yet may not benefit from the fearsome nature of it, we can utilize the case of a recent victim of the Oct.7 attack, a taxi driver who was driving a passenger on that Shabbos/Shmini Atzeres morning, which was featured in a news report a few months ago. Interestingly, in the photo showing him accompanying the report on his murder, he is seen wearing tefillin. Obviously, when someone wears tefillin, yet is being mechallel Shabbos בפרהסיא (as many Chabad tefillin "customers" are), he shouldn't count on them saving him.

A new, different approach to hanochas tefillin as protection

Interestingly, a different campaign has arisen in recent months, also trying to tap in to the power of tefillin as above, but with a different approach than that of Chabad-Lubavitch, which seemingly is more faithful to the meaning of the Torah teachings cited earlier.

Tefillin Campaign for Israeli Soldiers - Israel Select Charity Fund

In contrast to fleeting, haphazard tefillin sessions, this new one promotes a much longer and deeper connection to the great mitzvah. It seems like a much more promising approach.

All should agree, however, that genuine observance of תורה ומצות overall, in general, is the key to our existence and survival, and needs to be promoted and strengthened. Especially in G-d's holy land, ארץ ישראל.

In the זכות of our sincere efforts in that regard, may we be zoche to סייעתא דשמיא, Heavenly assistance, and רוח והצלה וגאולה בקרוב. As the posuk states in Megillas Esther, which we read last week, ליהודים היתה אורה ושמחה וששון ויקר. אכי"ר, כן תהיה לנו, במהרה בימינו אמן.