It shall be for you a sign on your arm and a remembrance between your eyes.
What is the difference in connotation between a sign and a remembrance, and why is the one placed on the arm and the other between the eyes?
The Meshech Chochmah explains:
- A “sign” represents verifying something that will happen in the future.
- A “remembrance” relates to something that happened in the past as it relates to the present.
The events that we witnessed upon leaving Egypt fulfill both of the above roles. On the one hand, they expressed before our very eyes many of the truths upon which our faith is based, such as Hashem’s control and supervision of the world, reward and punishment etc. This means that as we reflect on these ideas with our minds, our knowledge of them is accompanied by the “remembrance” of our direct experience of them in Egypt.
At the same time, those events serve as a “sign” regarding our future redemption. We should never feel that we are beyond or unworthy of being redeemed. Regarding this too, we turn back to our experiences in Egypt, where we were in an extremely low and spiritually impoverished state, yet nevertheless, Hashem recalled His covenant with our forefathers and redeemed us. This itself is a source of confidence and conviction regarding the possibility of our redemption in the future. For this reason, the hand-tefillin are worn on the weaker arm, representing the Jewish people even in their weakened state, yet at the same time they are turned inward toward the heart, for they give our hearts hope for the future.
Hashem’s Tefillin
The Meshech Chochmah proceeds to move the discussion from our tefillin to those of Hashem, which as the Gemara describes, contain praises of the Jewish people, representing His connection with them.
Those, too, comprise head and arm tefillin, reflecting two aspects of that connection, as Hashem expresses elsewhere, “My eyes and heart shall be there all the days.”
- The head tefillin, between the eyes, represent Hashem’s supervision of, and interaction with, the Jewish people.
- The arm tefillin, positioned near the heart, represent Hashem’s love for the Jewish people.
From the tachanun
In the tachanun prayer on Monday and Thursday, we say,
Until when will Your strength be in captivity and Your splendor in the hands of the oppressor?
The concepts of “oz” and “tiferes” are related by the Gemara to the arm and head tefillin, respectively.
Thus, we are asking, “For how long will we remain in exile where Your love [arm-tefillin] and supervision [head-tefillin] of Your people are suppressed? Bring the final redemption so that they may both be revealed to all!”
With this in mind, he explains why the four sections of the head tefillin are in four separate compartments, while those of the arm tefillin are all written together on the same parchment. The Rambam writes that when it comes to hashgachah, not all Jews receive the same measure of Divine supervision, rather, it depends on the level of the person.
Hence, the head tefillin are divided into four separate compartments, representing the four categories of Jew described by the Midrash: those who have Torah learning, those who have good deeds, those who have both and those who have neither.
By contrast, the four paragraphs in the arm tefillin are all written on the same parchment and placed in the same compartment. For that tefillin represents Hashem’s love for His people, which is constant and uniform, regardless of their level.
