One of the first commandments that the Jews received is the mitzvah of wearing phylacteries, which is a sort of ritual garment meant to symbolize and commemorate the Jews’ miraculous exodus from Egypt. Although those phylacteries are commonly known in Hebrew as tefillin, the word tefillin actually never appears in the Bible. Instead, the Biblical Hebrew word for tefillin is totafot, which appears three times in the Bible (Ex. 13:16, Deut. 6:8, 11:18) — all in reference to the phylacteries placed on one’s head. But the Biblical Hebrew totafot is actually rendered by Targum Onkelos and Targum Jonathan as tefillin. This essay explores the underlying etymological bases of the words tefillin and totafot while attempting to gain an understanding of how those two synonyms do not quite connote the exact same thing.
Let’s start with the word totafot. Even though (as mentioned above) some Targumim equate the word totafot with tefillin, there is another tradition among early translations of the Bible: Targum Neofiti and Peshitta render the word totafot into a Aramaic/Syriac equivalent of the Hebrew word zikaron (“remembrance”), which implies that they understood the core meaning of totafot to be related to the concept of “remembering” (an approach echoed by Ibn Ezra to Ex. 13:16). With this approach, it is unclear exactly what the etymological root of the word totafot might be, or even from what language it comes.
The Tosafists (Tosafot to Menachot 34b), on the other hand, look to Rabbinic Hebrew to find cognates of totafot and hone in on its exact meaning. In doing so, they offer two ways of understanding the primary meaning of the word: Firstly, they propose that totafot refers to a “head-ornament” or “frontlet” that covers the forehead. Indeed, the Mishna (Shabbat 6:1) uses the word totefet in reference to an article of jewelry worn by women.
Alternatively, the Tosafists relate the word totafot to the act of “gazing/seeing,” as the head phylacteries are placed on the head near the eyes, as though they were also part of one’s “eyes” that look outward. This explanation — which is also adopted by Chizkuni and Rabbi Yosef Bechor Shor (to Ex. 3:16) — alludes to a specific aspect of phylacteries in that they are highly-visible religious artifacts that all can see. To that effect, the Torah promises that “the nations of the world will see what the name of Hashem is called upon you, and they will fear from you” (Deut. 28:10), which the Talmud (Brachot 6a) explains as a reference to the gentiles “seeing” the Jews wearing phylacteries. In light of this, it makes sense that very word for phylacteries in the Bible might be related to “seeing.”
We now turn to the more common and familiar word for phylacteries — tefillin. This word appears multiple times in the Mishna. Technically speaking, the word tefillin actually refers to a pair of phylacteries that includes those worn on the head and those worn on the arm. This is why it is in plural form. In the Mishna, the word for a single phylactery is tefillah. An inflection of tefillin also appears in the Mishna in the second-person possessive form as tefillav, meaning “his tefillin.”
The same passage from the Tosafists cited above that sought to explain the etymology and meaning of totafot also addresses the word tefillin. In that passage, the Tosafists explain that the word tefillin derives from the root PEH-LAMMED-LAMMED (“argumentation,” “proving”), and refers to the phylacteries’ role as a tangible testament to the Jewish People's association with Hashem. Similarly, the Rosh (Hilchot Tefillin §2) and his son the Tur (Orach Chaim §25) explain that tefillin is an expression of plilah as it quells any argument about the specialness of the Jewish People because it serves as a physical sign of Hashem resting His presence upon them.
