Nov 28, 2023
by R. Gidon Rothstein
Parshat VaYishlach: Treating Our Tefillin Properly
A fact Aruch HaShulchan will mention more than once in Orach Chayim 38: the mitzvah to wear tefillin applies all day. We currently restrict them to our morning prayers, for fear we cannot maintain proper bodily cleanliness and sanctity, an idea that shapes our current chapter.
When Our Stomachs Aren’t Good
The first five se’ifim of AH focus on someone with an intestinal illness. Tur and Shulchan Aruch exempted such a man, based on Chullin 110a, where a man told R. Chisda he wasn’t wearing tefillin because of his digestive issues. In contrast, Ketubbot 104a tells us Rebbe (R. Yehudah HaNasi, the Torah leader of his generation and the editor of the Mishnah) had stomach problems, needed to relieve himself frequently, would take his tefillin off each time, and then put them back on.
In se’if two, AH instinctively rejects the possibility Shulchan Aruch meant this to be a blanket exemption. In Chullin, for example, the conversation with R. Chisda happens in a non-prayer moment, at a time when Jews wore tefillin all day. Unfortunately for his claim, Tur and Shulchan Aruch had already written that we currently wear tefillin only for prayer; their then also exempting someone with a bad stomach sounds like they mean even then.
The Extent of the Exemption
Nor can he accept the possibility an illness makes it prohibited to wear tefillin, since Rebbe did. Granted, he was greater than us, but if it was forbidden, he wouldn’t have done it.
Adding to our problems, Rema cited Mordechai, someone who is ill in other ways is also exempt, if he cannot focus on tefillin. AH argues those people are supposed to put on tefillin at any points when they have a break in their symptoms. To AH’s mind, that’s not yet different from our intestinal sufferers, whom he thinks should wear tefillin for Shema and Shemoneh Esrei if they can.
In se’if four, he concedes Shulchan Aruch seems to disagree, that for most illnesses, the problem is only the symptoms, so such patients can and should put on tefillin when possible. People with stomach problems often have side effects arise at unexpected times, like expelling air and/or diarrhea, and cannot take off their tefillin as often or as quickly as necessary.
