Soon after I started selling inexpensive tefillin peshutim, I stopped for a period of six months. I live in an area with a very large number of top sofrim and high-end tefillin makers (i.e. the kind of tefillin that will run you at least $1,100 if you live in the neighborhood, and a lot more if you were to buy them elsewhere), and I regularly engaged them in conversation. Whenever I told them most of my customers are looking for a complete set of kosher tefillin gassot for under $500, or kosher tefillin peshutim for under $250, they would raise a brow and start telling me how dubious tefillin at that price level can be. They described parchments that, to cut costs, are not checked and could easily have a letter missing or two letters touching, which renders the tefillin non-kosher by all standards.
Cheap Tefillin
Then a very skilled tefillin maker (I once overheard the neighborhood rabbi say he “has hands of gold”) began telling me about how many times he has seen inexpensive tefillin battim made by upstanding Jews, but whose kashrus was highly questionable.
And all of the tefillin professionals I spoke to said the same thing: “You don’t want to make your living selling cheap tefillin that aren’t kosher, which means a Jew somewhere out there is laying unfit tefillin for years – thanks to you!”
And their words hit home. Soon I stopped dealing with both of my tefillin suppliers because I wasn’t 100% confident in their wares. After a few months I decided to resume looking for kosher tefillin makers I could rely on, but nobody I spoke to dealt with tefillin gassot under $800.
Eventually I started working with three different suppliers, because I felt each one sold a certain type of tefillin (peshutim mehudarim, gassot) at the best value, but was not as efficient selling other types of tefillin at such a value.
Tefillin Peshutim – 100% Kosher
Our tefillin peshutim are made by Rabbi Asher Zarbiv of Jerusalem’s Ramot neighborhood. He studied at one of Jerusalem’s top yeshivas (Torah Ohr) and later went on to work as a sofer for several years. Today he no longer works as a scribe, but as a dealer who knows how to supervise parchment writing and he sews up the tefillin battim and does the finishing work himself.
Tefillin Gassot
We use two different suppliers for our Tefillin Gassot, both located in Jerusalem. Our standard Gassot are made under the supervision of a tallit, tefillin and mezuzah dealer with a wealth of experience, who is entrusted by a number of rabbis of very high repute in South America and elsewhere. To keep costs low he does not have official kashrus oversight, but he works with a magihah (parchment checker) who is highly experienced.
Our top-end tefillin gassot, “Tiferet,” are made by one of Jerusalem’s leading tefillin makers. They have a large staff of highly trained experts and are under the supervision of Rabbi Shamai Kehat Hakohen Gross shlita. The battim are made under the supervision of Rabbi Meir Stern or Rabbi Moshe Flumenbaum.
All of the tefillin we sell are kosher, and the parchments are checked twice – by Mishmeret HaStam using a special computer program and by a certified magihah (parchment proofreader).
