Exploring the Significance of Tefillin - Rabbi Dr Akiva Tatz

now thatu is learning the of uh let's say a few words about origin depth meaning you know many people deal with the mssoft filin because it's a Mitzvah but what's the time what is the depth what can we say about the idea of filling that perhaps give us an added understanding and for those of you involved in Outreach when people new to Judaism ask about the meaning ofin what can we tell them the truth is that are placed on the head at the sight of the root of what it means to be human know that Rashi says that Philly needs to be need to be worn where the skull of a child is open that's where the skull of a child is open when child's born there's a piece of skull missing above the hairline you have the fontanel even the even the secular term Fontanel means a point of origin right the font is a f point of origin the child is born with an open connection to the higher world the bones of the skull are missing actually interesting there's one fontel that is open here one font at the back where the where the knot of the T is is placed but this fontel at the top of the head this is a place of the T War the idea is that this crowning aspect of the human being filling is like a crown and the meaning of a crown is a connection to something higher the king wears a crown on his head it's not part of him but it indicates his Regal status it's a symbol or a connection to something that is higher the open point in the child's skull this is the point of connection with the higher world as the child is born retains that connection to the Torah that he was taught when he was unborn and as he grows the bones gradually close and there's a bony obstruction at that positionin is a reopening of that primordial connection to a higher World in fact it's no accident that the wordin is the same root as means a direct Connection in fact the only two direct connections we have with Hashem or Torah and in Torah speaks to us in we speak to him other Mitzvah connect indirectly but is a direct speaking to aen fing if you like is as an aspect of that direct connection it is is placed on that part of the body that was once directly connected no obstruction and has become obstructed of tunder filling reopens that connection the Aral says in sh Gul a very very amazing thing theal says that adish that filling growing out of his head what he says what he explains is something like this that adish the part that's missing when it the child is born now you see the skull is absent there only the skin and the membranes that Gap indicates something that was once there and explains the when adition was formed his head did not end where our head ends he had a higher aspect to his head that aspect of his head housed higher parts of the the way he puts it is something like this in a human being today we have three aspects of n we have nees r and but it's well known that there are two higher aspects of and these are the five parts of the human human whichever word you use as generic had all five parts of him intact and explains the that the higher aspect of is the transitional zone is the transitional Zone the lower aspect of theam is relevant to the body the higher aspect of theam is relevant to something much higher in cabalistic jargon that's called the Mak something that's outside and around the head explains their reans in the sh and were all vested in him not like today they were part of him and that's why he was Immortal in other words the upper aspect of those parts of the are the parts of the human that are Immortal that is the immortality of the human being when Adam marish sinned he died what does dying mean The Immortal parts of the left I would put it like this you know one of the significant and Central problems in the dealing with the is that the said to on the day that you eat the fruit of the tree you will certainly die raised the question of the fact that he didn't die he ate the fruit of the tree he died 930 years later what about hashem's Pro that he would die the day that he at the fruit MIM answer in a a relatively simple fashion death began Man became mortal his death began to progress from that time on but in typical style and classic style the arel explains that when he ate the fruit of the tree he died immediately what is death death means that higher aspects aspects of the N leave the body death is when the soul leaves the body the body is left bereft of its n even death today when the neish leaves the body a little bit of neish is left we call it right theim explains that there's no total separation of Nas ever and therefore when a person dies today what happens is the neish leaves a little bit remains in the body that's called dying dying means that a person enters a state where most of the n leaves and very little is left that's how we look today the original situations says the result when adish reached was created with the incredible the Madre that he had and he ate the fruit of the tree he literally died then what happened was the upper aspect of and left that is a dying that was far more profound than the death we experience today what is left with was the amount of that we have now and therefore theim are perfectly accurate and literal the day that he ate the fruit of the tree he died by the way theal says something amazing what happened to these three aspects of the that we lost them he says they came down three subsequent times in history the Upp part of came down in N of there were people who sort of died in a very strange sort of a fashion the next part came down in noi that means the the aspect was a person inherited on that was Immortal and that's why he never died the higher aspect what we call came down in a person called say never died he just walked off this planet so to speak he became a that's a whole discussion how human being could become a and which but these three aspects of immortality were once connected to the human skull and the human the higher aspects of human inhabited those and we are bere of those fing is the opportunity to reconnect those Immortal aspects the Mitzvah any Mitzvah means a connection the word mitzvah Mitzvah means a connection is unique is not just another Mitzvah each Mitzvah has its uniqueness but the Mitzvah f is an opportunity to reconnect to an immortal level one wears the crown that indicates the Regal and Royal status of a human being this is the deep meaning of the fact that people look at someone with filling on is a natural awe and fear and the reason is that you're looking at a person who's now expressing the higher dimensions of and therefore who study of course each is specifically connected each detail like all manifestations of Torah each detail in the midst of manifest something spiritual but the general idea of fit is that one is putting on the crown the original symbol of royalty which is a connection between this world and a higher world