tefillin

I touch the box with my strap and kiss the box (shel yad and shel rosh).

If you take the Shel Rosh first, you must cover it up and put the Tefillah Shel Yad first. You are not passing over the mitzvah becasue the pasuk says: U’Kshartam Le’Ot Al Yadecha Vehayu LeTotafot Ben Eineikha which is darshened (1) the order is the hand and then the head and (2) Totafot is plural of Ot which means that you have to “see two Ot” at the time of the head tefillin; i.e., one on your hand and the second on the head. Also, there is a halakhic rule of Ma’alin B’Kodesh V’Ein Moridin which means that you increase in Kedusha but not decrease. Since the Kedusha of the Rosh Tefillin is greater than the Kedusha of the Yad Tefillin, we place the Yad Tefillin first.

All this is under the consideration that there are no injuries to your arm, etc… If that is the case, you must consult your Local Orthodox Rav.

I place the tefillin shel rosh on the same side each day

miklal lav ata shome’ah hein.

So you don’t put your shel yad on the same side every day?

Derech HaMelech,

So you don’t put your shel yad on the same side every day?

Sorry, perhaps I left out too many words in my previous post, so what I was saying was unclear. I was only talking about taking the tefillin in and out of their bag. What I was trying to say was:

When I return my tefillin to their bag [after shacharis], I place the tefillin shel rosh [into the bag] on the same side [of the bag] each day. That way, [the tefillin shel yad will always be on one side of the bag, and] I will [successfully] remove the tefillin shel yad [from the bag] first the next morning by habit [because it will reliably be on the same side of the bag each morning and I won’t have to think about it].

Better? 🙂

moishy,

I thought you are always supposed to put the shel rosh on the right of the bag and the shel yad on the left side??

That’s actually what I do. Maybe I heard to do that from somewhere, and have long since forgotten (but kept the habit).