14 August 2026
Question
I attended a morning service at shul last Tuesday and witnessed something unusual. Towards the end of the service some of the men took off their tefillin and then immediately put their tefillin back on. Confused by this, I did what I always do in these situations. I asked chat. The answer I got:
They are usually changing from Rashi tefillin to Rabbeinu Tam tefillin.
These two medieval authorities disagree about the order of the Torah passages inside the tefillin. The accepted practice is to wear Rashi tefillin during the morning service. Some men then put on Rabbeinu Tam tefillin afterwards to fulfil the mitzvah according to that opinion as well.
This confused me even more. How can there be debate about such a basic law? Surely Moses told everybody how to make tefillin. How could two opinions arise hundreds of years later?
I asked chat. And the answer didn't make sense. So I am doing what I always do in these situations. I’m asking you.
Here is a classic example of a Jewish argument. We can't even agree on the order of the passages in Tefillin. Rabbeinu Tam disagreed with Rashi, his own grandfather! Surely they can't both be right. Or can they?
The opportunity to settle this debate once and for all arose with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls
In the 1950s, a trove of two-thousand-year-old manuscripts was found in caves in the Judean Desert. Amongst them were found ancient pairs of tefillin. Well, here is a historical opportunity to finally uncover the truth. These tefillin predated Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam by a thousand years. They opened the tefillin to see who was right.
Guess what? Some were like Rashi, some were like Rabbeinu Tam. It turns out, the discrepancy goes all the way back to antiquity.
Moses told the Israelites that tefillin need to contain four specific passages of the Torah. Two valid ways to arrange them emerged, each representing a different perspective. Both were ancient and authentic. Centuries later, these two main opinions became known by their champions, Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam.
Rashi’s opinion was upheld as the law, and that is the standard for all to follow. But the scrupulous go beyond the basic law, and to this day, many also wear Rabbeinu Tam tefillin.
And after all that, it could be that the two opinions are intentional. The Kabbalists explain that tefillin connect our heart and mind to the divine. The two types of tefillin represent two layers: the conscious and the superconscious, the revealed levels and the hidden. Putting on both pairs connects us not just on the surface level, but in the depths of our heart and mind.
So there’s the story. Two contradictory opinions, thousands of years of debate. Jews do what they always do in these situations: Lift our hands and say, “You’re right. But you’re also right. Ok, you’re both right.”
Sources
Torah Shleimah, vol. 12, Parashat Bo II, Miluim, siman 44
Pnimim uMargoliot p42
Torat Hamoadim (Rav Goren) Ben Hametzarim
Shaar HaKavanot, Derushei Tefillin, Derush 6