Tefillin – Page 2 – Ben's Tallit Shop

Home or shul: Where should you put on your tallis and tefillin?

The Shulchan Aruch tells us, "Those who are careful to wear a tallis katan should don it and lay tefillin at home, and then wallk, wearing tzitzis and crowned with tefillin, to the synagogue and there wrap himself in a tallis gadol" (O.C. 25, 2). The reason is that the Zohar says it is a...

Types of tefillin: What’s the difference?

Making the battim (the leather boxes which house the tefillin parchments) of the Shel Yad is relatively straightforward, since it's just a simple compartment that's smooth on the outside. On the other hand, the Shel Rosh not only has a letter ש painstakingly embossed on both sides, but also it is formed of four separate,...

Lost Tefillin

UPDATE: All of these tefillin have now been returned to their owners. The story of how the tefillin owners were found is a good read in and of itself. We are posting the following as a "public service message." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Subject: Lost tefillin in unclaimed baggage store in Alabama HELP! HELP! HELP! Hashovas Aveida! We went to a store...

Bar Mitzvah Sets

To tell you the truth, we avoid using the term bar mitzvah set because it can mean different things to different people. Often a bar mitzvah set consists of a tallit, matching bag and matching kippah. In other cases a bar mitzvah set revolves around a set of tefillin and often includes a siddur...

Quality Tefillin

It's quite common for people to dig out a set of tefillin abandoned in a closet for years, have it checked and get back a report that the tefillin are not kosher. Recently a customer who bought a tallit from me consulted me on his tefillin problem: Shalom. Well, I just heard back from the...

Beginner’s Tefillin: Tips for First-Time Buyers

Often our tefillin customers are buying tefillin for their first time. For example, this week we received the following inquiry from a young Britain named Jacob: I am looking at buying my first pair of Tefillin. At my Synagogue congregants don't use them. Well, actually some do, but it's not the done thing. What type...

Inexpensive Tefillin Online: Buyer Beware!

We recently received an inquiry from a college student interested in buying tefillin, who was wondering what the differences are between the tefillin we sell and very inexpensive tefillin he came across on Amazon. I want to buy tefillin but I do not understand (because I do not know much about tefillin) why your cost...

Kosher Tefillin Gassot

Recently I got a call from the U.S. from a young man you was shopping for kosher tefillin gassot. He said he was interested in buying from us, but was a bit wary because our prices were lower than those of many of our competitors. He had a number of questions to ask about...

Tefillin Dakkot vs. Tefillin Dakkot Ohr Echad

A prospective tefillin buyer recently sent in the following question regarding the types of tefillin we sell: I'm doing some research before I buy my set of tefillin, and I was wondering what the difference is between the dakkot ones and the dakkot ohr echad? Physically, the Tefillin Dakkot are slightly larger than the Tefillin Dakkot...

Bar Mitzvah Planning – Tallit & Tefillin

If you're starting to look for a bar mitzvah tallit and tefillin, hopefully you still have plenty of time until the bar mitzvah. From my experience there are two types of parents: the type who start looking for a tallit and tefillin two or three months before the bar mitzvah, and others who start...