Importance of Tefillin; Parallels of the Mitzvah and the art of sculpting
By the Grace of G-d
14th of Adar 1 (Purim Koton), 5719
Brooklyn, N.Y.
[Mr. Chaim Jacob Lipchitz]
Greeting and Blessing:
This is to acknowledge receipt of your letter, and many thanks also for the book JACQUES LIPCHITZ, by Maurice Raynal and the reproduction of your opus “The Miracle” which have duly reached me.
Noting your address in your letter, it enables me to fulfill my promise to send you the Tefillin, which I trust you will use every weekday in good health for many happy years to come.
As I mentioned during our conversation, the significance of Tefillin is a far-reaching one, in that it is an all-embracive Mitzvah connected with the whole personality of the Jew. This is reflected in the two parts of the Tefillin, one placed on the upper left arm, facing the heart - the seat of emotion, and the other on the head, facing the brain - the seat of the intellect. Thereby the Jew signifies that in both areas - intellectually and emotionally, making up the whole man - he is moved by the idea of submission to the Supreme Authority, the Creator and Master of the Universe, and by fulfilling the Divine Will and shaping his life accordingly, he transcends the gap between Creator and created and unites with Him, elevating, at the same time, his part of the physical world in which he lives. This, in fact, is the deeper meaning of all the Divine precepts, and the awareness of this enables man to strive constantly for the supremacy of mind over matter and 'spiritualize' gross matter.
The sculptor and his art offers a ready parallel. For he, even more than the artist who paints, takes a shapeless piece of gross matter, whether stone, wood, or metal, and gives it form and idea which belong entirely in the realm of the spiritual, thus breathing a spirit and vitality into something which was no more than a lump of matter before.
The Jews creativeness is on similar lines, and not only as a private individual, but also as a member of the people which became - with the receiving of the Torah at Sinai - "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” the bearers of holiness and spirituality among the nations of the world.
Everything in the world has reciprocal relationship, and the creativeness of the individual, at whatever level, whether on the human level - sculpturing - as in the case of master and disciple, or on the level of organic life - as in animal and plant culture, or on the level of inorganic matter - as in the case of the creative artist, and even more so, the creative sculptor -- such creativeness has a beneficial reciprocity, raising the creative individual to a higher level than before.
On the highest level of all, where the Jew transforms matter into something sublime and holy, the reciprocity is expressed by our Sages in their statement that “One Mitzvah brings another in its train,” and “the reward of a Mitzvah is the Mitzvah" itself - the constant striving after the holy and the spiritual, through the fulfillment of the Divine precepts, especially such a penetrating Mitzvah as Tefillin.
With prayerful wishes for good health and happiness, and hoping to hear good news from you,
With blessing
P.S. There are no facilities in my Secretariat for writing in French, hence the English letter. However, you may also in the future write to me in French, please.
P.P.S. The Tefillin have been sent to you by special courier, and I trust was duly received.
Impact and Reflections
After receiving the Tefillin Lipchitz began donning Tefillin every day, continuing for the rest of his life.
The new daily routine of donning Tefillin had a profound impact on Lipchitz.
"It puts me together with all my people," he later said. "I am with them. And I am near to my L-rd, to the Almighty. I speak with Him. I cannot make any individual prayers, but I speak to Him. He gives me strength for the day. I could not move otherwise. . . I know that it did something very important for me. I could not live any more without it.”
Once, at a Hasidic art exhibition in Detroit, he explained to the crowd that every artist needs inspiration. "You have to wait for a certain energy, a holy spirit, to enter. Putting on tefillin gives me inspiration for the day".
On a visit to Israel that included the celebration of his eightieth birthday, Lipchitz received a delegation of Chabad Hasidim who came to invite him to visit Kfar Chabad. When they entered his hotel room, he was in tallis and tefillin. “I am a greater Chassid than you,” the sculptor told them “I do all that the Rebbe tells me. He asked me to put on Tefillin, and I do. Do you fulfill all that the rebbe asks of you?”
