Adapted from: Messages from Rav Pam by Rabbi Sholom Smith

וּקְשַׁרְתָּם לְאוֹת עַל יָדֶךָ וְהָיוּ לְטֹטָפֹת בֵּין עֵינֶיךָ

Bind them as a sign upon your arm and let them be ornaments between your eyes (Devarim 6:8).

This pasuk, which is part of the first parashah of Krias Shema, is one of the sources in the Torah for the mitzvah of placing tefillin on one’s arm and head. Tefillin is a precious mitzvah for which Jews since time immemorial have gone to great lengths and expense to perform. During the Holocaust, there were Jews in the concentration camps who traded away their meager ration of bread for the privilege of briefly putting on a pair of tefillin that had somehow been smuggled into the camp.

Rav Pam would often repeat a story about the chassidic master R’ Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, the author of Kedushas Levi. The Berditchever Rav once saw a simple Jew accidentally drop his tefillin. The Jew paled with fright and quickly picked them up, kissed them, and lovingly wiped off the dirt.

Taking in the scene, the Berditchever Rav raised his eyes heavenward and declared, “Master of the World! Look down from heaven and see how a simple Jew expresses his deep love for his tefillin, which have fallen to the ground. You, too, our Heavenly Father, also wear tefillin (see Berachos 6a), which contain the pasuk (I Divrei HaYamim 17:21) Who is like Your people Israel, a unique nation on earth! How long can You allow Your tefillin, Your precious people, Israel, to lie on the ground? It is almost 2,000 years since Your people were sent into galus. Why don’t You pick us up and hug and kiss us, as this simple Yid did for his tefillin?”

This parashah is always read on the first Shabbos after Tishah B’Av. We hope and pray that Hashem will finally respond to the Berditchever Rav’s appeal and bring us the long-awaited Final Redemption.