Why the 3,000-year-old tradition of wearing hidden scrolls is making a comeback
One of the most sacred objects in Judaism is made of skin from a bull's neck. It’s called tefillin, and each black box contains scrolls that must be written by hand. Now, demand for these prayer objects has soared since the war in Israel and Gaza that erupted on October 7 — mostly from less religious Jews, including Israeli soldiers headed into battle. So what does it say inside these little boxes? And why are so many people trying to get their hands on them?
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00:00 One of the most sacred objects in Judaism is made of skin from a bull's neck.
00:08 It's called tefillin, and it's an ancient custom to connect hands, hearts, and minds with God.
00:16 Each black box contains scrolls that must be written by hand.
00:22 It's done the same way it was done 3,300 years ago.
00:27 Throughout history, Jews have been persecuted, forcing them to sometimes wear tefillin in secret.
00:35 But demand has soared since the latest war in Israel and Gaza that erupted on October 7th.
00:42 Mostly from less religious Jews.
00:45 I think it's important for me to be here.
00:47 Including Israeli soldiers headed into battle.
00:51 Now, traditional workshops can't make tefillin fast enough.
00:57 So what does it say inside these little boxes?
01:01 And why are so many people trying to get their hands on them?
01:06 We went to Israeli workshops to find out how this ritual is still standing.
01:14 The scrolls inside tefillin are made from parchment, just as they were thousands of years ago.
01:21 The fur is scraped off an animal hide and then stretched out to dry.
01:27 For a Jewish ritual object, the hide must come from a cow, sheep, or other animal considered kosher to eat.
01:36 Every piece of parchment comes out different.
01:40 Some are thicker, some are thinner, some are more hairy, some are more shiny.
01:47 Rabbi Chaim Kaplan runs Otzar HaStam, a workshop in Safed in northern Israel that writes tefillin and Torah scrolls.
01:58 Scribes like Asaf Levi start by sanding the parchment and then sprinkling it with chalk.
02:09 This is what separates the chalk from the parchment.
02:12 It also creates a layer of chalk so that the dior will separate and blend.
02:19 It also prevents the dior from spreading.
02:24 Asaf adds a layer of this special adhesive liquid called "mei haklaf."
02:31 It doesn't have the effect of a chalk, as we know it. It's not chalk.
02:36 But it creates the effect of a glue between the chalk and the powder.
02:42 These parchments have been pre-etched with straight horizontal lines.
02:47 Torah scrolls, which contain the entire Hebrew Bible, have 42 lines of text on each page.
02:54 The smaller scrolls inside tefillin have just four or seven lines.
02:59 A humidifier runs all day to help the ink set on the parchment.
03:05 It's always quiet here.
03:08 Scribes, or "sofrim" in Hebrew, must maintain a state of intense focus.
03:15 Most of them use a feather quill, sometimes with a tip made from steel or gold.
03:22 In the past, they used reed pens.
03:25 Other scribes prefer a newer ceramic pen that never needs sharpening.
03:31 It has the advantage of being very durable and not being as fragile as the original.
03:35 You can write the entire Torah scroll without even having to sharpen it.
03:39 The main ingredient in the ink is soot.
03:43 Traditional recipes also include gum Arabic, the juice of a gall nut, and a single drop of honey.
03:52 There is a very, very precise recipe for making dior.
03:56 If you don't make dior with this exact recipe, it's not going to be as good.
04:00 Working at a steady pace, it takes Ezra Abadi a day or two to finish all the scrolls that go into a pair of tefillin,
04:07 and over a year to write an entire Torah.
04:11 If a scribe adds an extra letter, or misses one, or even writes one incorrectly,
04:17 then the tefillin is invalid, and a simple mistake can cost him days of lost labor.
04:24 Some mistakes, under some circumstances, can be fixed, can be erased. Some cannot.
04:30 It's Avraham Ben-Simon's job to try and fix as much as possible.
04:50 Avraham has been doing this job for 20 years.
04:54 He spends about an hour checking every scroll.
04:58 A computer does a final scan to ensure accuracy.
05:17 Rabbi Kaplan has run this workshop for over 15 years, and he says he's never seen a time like this.
05:24 Demand keeps growing and growing, and we try our best to produce as much as we can
05:30 to supply the needs of Jews all around the world.
05:34 The completed scrolls end up in leather boxes,
05:38 like the ones made at another workshop about 130 miles to the south.
05:44 The leather used to come from sheep, but now...
05:48 Rabbi Ishai Ba'avad founded Tefillin Beit El in 1979,
06:00 in a religious settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
06:04 Each piece starts at around 2 feet long.
06:08 Craftsmen shape the compartments for the scrolls by making these bumps.
06:13 They take the skin and start stretching it.
06:17 These nubs will eventually be compacted into a cube just a few inches wide.
06:25 They have to do it in stages, or it will break.
06:30 Religious law regulates every step in the making of tefillin.
06:34 One of the rules is that the single strip of leather must not get punctured.
06:39 In this case, you can see that these tefillin have been damaged.
06:42 The outer nub has burst, and we see a hole.
06:47 Shaping the compartments that will eventually hold the scrolls can take up to a year.
06:53 It all depends on the artisan's techniques and the climate where he works.
06:58 The leather dries faster in arid parts of Israel.
07:03 Workers shave away excess leather in between trips to the hydraulic press.
07:09 These four metal bars keep the empty spaces in place.
07:19 They repeat this step up to 15 times,
07:23 and each time, the boxes take on more precise angles.
07:27 The leather needs to dry and set after each squeeze.
07:33 I'll press, and you'll hear the sound.
07:36 It's dry.
07:38 Dry, dry.
07:40 Workers trim excess material and press it until they get a square shape.
07:46 According to Jewish mysticism, the shape reflects the architecture of the Jewish Temple
07:52 that once stood in Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa Mosque is today.
07:58 We'll do it again and again until it's perfectly perfect.
08:03 These fully-formed casings, batim in Hebrew, are 40mm by 40mm.
08:11 The sides are embossed with the Hebrew letter Shin,
08:16 an initial representing two of God's names.
08:19 The letter is accentuated using a set of small scrapers.
08:24 Workers bend the extra material backward, creating the bottom flap for the boxes.
08:30 To refine the angles and symmetry, craftsmen use bandsaws and sanders.
08:43 This bell-shaped tool carves a notch for the leather straps.
08:47 By now, the leather is as hard as wood.
08:52 The bottom panel is carefully cracked open, revealing the compartments within.
08:57 The four biblical passages in Tiflin outline the core beliefs of Judaism
09:03 to commemorate the exodus from Egypt and the obligation to educate children about it.
09:10 The others hold the Shema prayer, which proclaims there's only one God.
09:15 The passages are written on a single long scroll for the Arm Tiflin
09:20 and four separate scrolls for the head.
09:23 Workers tie both parts with calves' hair
09:27 and sew the boxes shut with sinew from the lower leg of a cow.
09:31 Once the scrolls are placed inside, they're only removed every few years
09:37 to make sure the letters haven't smudged or broken.
09:40 They airbrush the batim with a coat of black paint
09:44 to match the color of the straps in the next step.
09:48 Black absorbs all colors and doesn't reflect any back.
09:52 According to tradition, this represents how God exists throughout the universe
09:57 without any divisions or separations.
10:00 The straps are usually two to three feet long,
10:04 enough to wrap around a person's arm at least seven times,
10:08 a number that represents completeness in Judaism.
10:11 According to religious law, men over the age of 13
10:15 are supposed to bind Tiflin every weekday.
10:18 The earliest evidence of Tiflin comes from the Dead Sea Scrolls,
10:23 dating as far back as the 3rd century BC.
10:27 But the details of how to make and wear them
10:30 are said to have been passed down orally from Moses at Mount Sinai.
10:34 Other sources indicate that the practice emerged during the 2nd century BC
10:39 when the Jewish Maccabees were at war with occupying Syrian Greek forces.
10:44 Several empires outlawed Jewish practices, including Tiflin.
10:48 Later, when praying with them wasn't technically illegal,
10:52 it had fallen out of popularity.
10:54 For most of modern history, wearing Tiflin was a practice
10:58 mainly observed by the most religious Jewish sects.
11:01 It took a war to change that nearly 60 years ago.
11:06 "Israel Defense Forces have taken necessary steps to meet all eventualities."
11:13 In 1967, tensions between Israel, Palestinians, and surrounding Arab states
11:18 were at an all-time high.
11:20 A month before the Six-Day War started,
11:23 the leader of the Chabad Hasidic movement in New York
11:26 urged his followers to help others put on Tiflin.
11:31 "And the people of Israel will be comforted
11:34 that you managed to bring them with you.
11:38 The children of Israel will be safe there."
11:42 He said they would provide Israel with spiritual protection.
11:47 "They went out into the streets to persuade the passers-by and residents
11:51 to put on Tiflin to save the people and to put an end to our enemy."
11:58 Israeli forces captured East Jerusalem in June 1967,
12:02 including the walled Old City,
12:05 which has sites sacred to Muslims, Christians, and Jews.
12:09 This area is controlled by Israel to this day
12:12 and remains a contentious flashpoint.
12:15 And today's ongoing fighting with Hamas in Gaza
12:19 pushed many Israeli soldiers to seek out their own pair.
12:23 "I cannot tell you how many soldiers going into Gaza said to me,
12:27 'I'm not going into Gaza without a building.'
12:30 I was shocked."
12:32 Just like in 1967, rabbis and yeshiva students
12:37 have increased outreach to Jews around the world
12:40 who have never worn Tiflin.
12:43 The rabbi who ignited the Tiflin revival died in 1994.
12:52 But many of his followers regularly make the pilgrimage
12:55 back to his synagogue in New York City.
12:58 "I serve in Ukraine, and coming here for a few days
13:03 to be with my colleagues, with the rabbi, gives me energy for the whole year."
13:07 Over 5,000 rabbis from the Chabad Lubavitch movement
13:12 gather each year in Crown Heights, Brooklyn,
13:14 for an international conference of shluchim,
13:17 the Hebrew word for "emissaries,"
13:20 including Rabbi Kaplan,
13:22 who oversees the scribes' workshop in Safed.
13:25 He said that these rabbis from around the world
13:28 are his biggest customers.
13:31 Rabbi Avraham Rapoport lives in New Jersey.
13:34 He makes TikTok and Instagram posts about Judaism.
13:38 "I feel like there's a renaissance,
13:40 there's an awakening of this Jewish soul.
13:43 You can be in America and protect and bring a blessing
13:46 to a Jew on the other side of the world.
13:48 So Tiflin's a good way to start."
13:52 A 2023 survey of these rabbis,
13:55 representing thousands of international Jews,
13:58 found that almost every single one of their congregations
14:01 had witnessed an increase in traditional observance
14:04 since October 7th.
14:06 "Yesterday I picked up six pairs of Tiflin,
14:09 new pairs of Tiflin for people who have committed
14:11 to put on Tiflin every day."
14:20 There's no official count,
14:22 but several organizations estimate
14:24 that tens of thousands of new pairs of Tiflin
14:27 have been distributed all over the world
14:29 in the past few months.
14:31 "By the way, this is a pair of Tiflin ordered yesterday
14:39 on the way to Manhattan, New York, being shipped now."
14:42 At the same time, scribes across Israel
14:47 have been called up for military duty,
14:49 and others have found it hard to stay focused.
14:52 "I have a couple of scribes who couldn't write
14:55 after the attack on Simchat Torah.
14:57 They couldn't come to work, or they came and said,
15:00 'I'm sorry, Rabbi Kathel, I can't write.
15:02 My head is somewhere else, and I'm making mistakes.
15:05 I'm just wasting my time.'"
15:07 So there's a growing backlog,
15:10 even as the orders are rolling in.
15:12 A pair of Tiflin can cost from $450 to over $2,500.
15:19 But as scribes do their jobs,
15:21 Rabbi Kaplan has lost an important source of income--
15:25 tourism.
15:27 "People come here for the good breath
15:30 and for the spiritual air that is here."
15:33 This hilltop city is one of the four holiest cities in Judaism.
15:38 It has undergone much change over the centuries,
15:42 amid war and population shifts.
15:45 It's now almost completely Jewish,
15:48 after its Palestinian population fled
15:51 or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war.
15:55 And once again, the shadow of war
15:58 has fallen over the city the last few months,
16:01 as the fear of rockets from Lebanon
16:03 has left the streets empty.
16:05 "This is usually full of tourists.
16:07 Look, it's locked. It's empty.
16:09 There's nothing here, nothing happening."
16:13 The visitor center attached to Rabbi Kaplan's workshop
16:17 is also empty.
16:19 "This center was a vibrant visitor center,
16:23 and since October 7th, we had no visitors."
16:27 But it's filled with reminders
16:29 that Jews have kept their faith in tough times before.
16:33 "These are really tiny, tiny old set-out Tiflin
16:37 which people say they were able to buy
16:40 and use during challenging times.
16:43 If it's during the Holocaust or communist Soviet Russia,
16:47 they were able to hide them in their pockets
16:50 and use them every day."
16:53 Rabbi Kaplan believes that struggles push believers
16:57 to search for meaning in life.
16:59 "People are seeking and searching for some connection
17:03 to something greater, bigger,
17:05 than what we just see around us,
17:07 which is so shaky."
17:09 He says that the practice of Tiflin
17:12 is a statement of faith in God,
17:14 but that it's people who have the power
17:16 to make things better.
17:18 "This is a reminder we have through our command of Tiflin,
17:23 and this is a reminder which belongs to every human being."
17:27 For more information, visit www.fema.org
17:30 [Music]