Mattos 3— The Mind-Body Connection
ויאמרו אל משה עבדיך נשאו את ראש אנשי המלחמה אשר בידנו ולא נפקד ממנו איש
They said to Moshe, “Your servants took a census of the men of the war under our command, and not a man of us is missing” (Bamidbar 31:49).
The Midrash (Shir HaShirim Rabbah 4:5) notes the reason not one soldier was lost: Because they donned tefillin in the proper sequence, first the shel yad and then the shel rosh. If even one of them had placed the shel rosh before the shel yad, they would not have come back in peace.
While this is proper adherence to halachah, what is it about the sequence that is so significant?
Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson (Divrei Shaul, fourth edition ad loc.) explains the symbolism and message behind the order. The halachah is that we place the tefillin shel yad on our yad keihah, the weaker hand (Menachos 37a). This symbolizes the recognition of our inherent weakness, that the human hand by itself is unable to accomplish without Hashem’s help and assistance. Once we acknowledge this fact in our minds, after having first demonstrated this by donning the tefillin shel yad on our weakened hand, we are then primed to wear the shel rosh, the symbol that Hashem is the One Who gives us strength, as it says in Parashas Ki Savo (Devarim 28:10), “Ve’ra’u kol amei ha’aretz ki Shem Hashem nikra alecha ve’yaru mimeka — Then all the peoples of the earth will see that the Name of Hashem is proclaimed over you, and they will revere you.” The Gemara (Berachos 6a) explains that this is referring to tefillin shel rosh, which, Rav Nathanson explains, represent the Hashgachah of Hashem, and how He is always at our side.
When fighting against Midian, Bnei Yisrael did not trust in themselves; they fully realized that all victory comes from Him. They realized that their own hands were weak, symbolized by their donning first their tefillin shel yad. Accordingly, Hashem was at their head and He fought their battle for them. Only when we understand the message of the yad keihah, the weak hand of man without His help, are we able to experience the true greatness and impact of the tefillin shel rosh. Only when we recognize the weakness of our arm, the weakness of our own efforts, will we then inspire fear over the other nations.
A related thought is said by the Tolna Rebbe in Parashas Shoftim (Heimah Yenachamuni Devarim pp.118-121). One of the soldiers sent home from the battlefield is the one who is fearful and fainthearted (Devarim 20:8). According to the Gemara (Sotah 44b), this is referring to someone who sinned by speaking between the time that he put on the tefillin shel yad and the tefillin shel rosh.
What is it about this interruption between the two that is so substantial that someone who does this must return from the battlefield?
The Tolna Rebbe explains that it is specifically during war that the dangerous attitude of: “Kochi ve'otzem yadi asah li es hachayil hazeh — My strength and the might of my hand made me all this wealth” (Devarim 8:17) can rear its ugly head. In war, we must not to be deluded by the illusion of our own power.
The tefillin shel yad represent action and using our power and strength. The shel rosh represent our mind and thoughts, the power of the intellect over emotion. We are supposed to bind and connect both to Hashem. It is easy to have our thoughts in the right place and be committed intellectually to Hashem. Harder is divorcing ourselves from the illusion of power and connecting our actions to Hashem.
A person who speaks between placement of the tefillin shel yad and tefillin shel rosh is a person whose hand and mind, whose body and spirit, are not acting in consort. The interruption between the two indicates that the actions of his hand are not as fully connected as the thoughts of his mind. Such a person is excused specifically from war, because he thinks it is he who is doing the fighting.
One who dons tefillin, either out of sequence or with an interruption, loses sight of the fact that we do not have the power, that it all comes from Hashem.
The Yerushalmi (Taanis 4:5) teaches us that when Bar Kochva would go to war, he would declare, “Ribbono shel Olam, I do not need Your help; just don’t hinder me!” In the end, he and his armies were punished for their lack of belief in Hashem’s greatness. The Gemara (Gittin 57b-58a) speaks about the defeat of Bar Kochva in Beitar. First, it tells us that one box of forty sa’ah of tefillin was found on the heads of those who were killed in Beitar, and then it says that three boxes, each of which contained forty sa’ah of tefillin, were found. So which was it? Forty sa’ah, or three times forty sa’ah? The Gemara concludes that one count refers to tefillin shel yad and the other refers to tefillin shel rosh.
The Vilna Gaon (Kol Eliyahu #222) understands that there were forty of the tefillin shel rosh, while there were three times forty of the tefillin shel yad. (See Rashi for an alternative pshat.) The Gaon then calculates why they found three times more baskets of tefillin shel yad than shel rosh. The enemy attacked during davening, while one group was in the process of removing their tefillin, another group was putting them on, and a third group was wearing them both. Since we put on the shel yad first, but first remove the shel rosh, it makes sense that when they were caught, they were wearing three times as many shel yad as shel rosh. They all had on the shel yad, but only one group had on the shel rosh.
Rav Mordechai Kornfield suggests that perhaps the timing in which the Jews were murdered reveals the nature of the very sin that caused their deaths. It is only through keeping the mitzvah of tefillin properly, and without interrupting between donning the shel yad and shel rosh, that Hashem grants the Jewish armies the blessing of Moshe Rabbeinu: “He will tear off arm and even head” (Devarim 33:20). As the Vilna Gaon (Kol Eliyahu #132) explains, Hashem smites the arms and heads of the enemy in one blow as a middah k’neged middah for putting on the shel yad and shel rosh without interruption.
Perhaps we can say that this is because, as we have discussed, in so doing we are showing that our body and spirit are connected in our service of Hashem and that we fully realize that all of our might comes from Him.
The defeat of Bar Kochva's army, and the fact that many were killed while wearing the tefillin shel yad without the shel rosh, may have derived from the fact that they did not put their faith in Hashem, but in their own physical ability and strength.
Now we can explain the Gemara in Chullin (88b-89a), which says that in the merit of Avraham saying to the King of Sodom, “I lift up my hand to Hashem, G-d, the Most High, Maker of heaven and earth, if so much as a thread to a shoestrap; or if I shall take anything of yours” (Bereishis 14:22-23), his children were rewarded with the blue string of techeiles and the leather strap of tefillin.
The Meshech Chochmah (ad loc.) explains that when Avraham lifted his hands Above, he was expressing his earnest belief that the military victory was not “kochi ve’otzem yadi — my strength and the might of my hand,” but from the Al-mighty Above. He therefore refused to take any of the spoils for himself, as he truly felt unentitled to them. It is as if he were saying, “What did I do to deserve any of this?”
With this in mind, perhaps we can explain why his children received the mitzvos of techeiles and tefillin as reward. The color of techeiles is light blue, which reminds and connects us to Hashem’s Heavenly Throne (Chullin ibid.). Tefillin remind a person that as strong as he is, he has at best been dealt a weak hand, with victory only coming with the help of Hashem, which inspires fear in the hearts of our enemies (ibid.).
How appropriate that tefillin and techeiles were given as a reward and legacy to the children of the person who took nothing for himself, ever mindful that everything came, not from his weak hand, but from the Hand of Hashem, as He sits on His Heavenly blue Throne.
