i was at the airport the other day and there was a man wearing little black box on his head and wrapping a black cord around his arm.
im assuming it was a sect of judaism, but i wasnt really sure.
anybody have he lowdown on this?
Yes, he’s Jewish.
What you saw are tefillin. In short, the boxes contain parchments with scriptural passages in them.
Zev Steinhardt
So Zev, what’s it all about? Is this a sectarian thing, or is it something some individuals elect to do at certian times, like a Catholic wearing a religious medallion?
Tefillin are worn by all Orthodox Jewish males (and many Conservative Jews) over the age of 13 every day, except for the Sabbath and holidays. They are traditionally worn during morning prayers.
The source to wear them come from the four passages contained in the teffilin. Two are from Dueteronomy (6:4-9, 11:13-21) and two are from Exodus (13:1-10 and 13:11-16).
The boxes and straps are constructed of leather. There are two of them. One is worn on the head, with the box on the forehead centered above the spot between the eyes, and the other is worn on the weaker arm (that’s the left for most of us). The “black cord” that BogartNoir is a leather strap that is wrapped around the forearm seven times and then wrapped around the hand. The box worn around the arm contains a single parchment with all four of the passages listed above, while the one worn on the head contains four separate parchements, one with each of the above passages, which are put into compartments in the box.
Orthodox Jews consider the wearing of tefillin to be mandatory. Strictly speaking, so do Conservative Jews. Reform Jews do not.
Zev Steinhardt
Just one little addition to Zev’s excellent overview of Tefillin: In olden days, many pious Jews would wear Tefillin all day long, not just during prayer. However, such pious ones were those who had enough self-control to not engage in mundane tasks or conversation - and to some degree, even mundane thought - while wearing them (they’d take them off when such things were necessary, then put them back on).
These days, few people are on that level of piety, so almost all wear them only during prayer (if only we ordinary folks could keep our minds from wandering even for that little span of time!). I think Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Steinberg (currently of Mattersdorf, Jerusalem, Israel) wears his all day long. I don’t off-hand know who else does.
Another name for the Tefillin is phylacteries, but that sounds vaguely naughty.
~VOW