Tefillin Help

Where do you live? Do you have a local sofer. If you’re in NY you can be directed to some honest & reasonably priced soferim. If you’re out of town, do you want a phone #? Would you buy “long distance”?

If you are in NYC or other large Jewish communities there are many reputable (and many otherwise, so be careful) soferim who can sell kosher tefillin at any level of hiddur. If not, a number of reputable soferim have websites and will ship. I recommend the following:

Eichlers.com (not a sofer, but they are the major judaica retailer)

Hasofer.com (a mostly online retailer. They have a large selection of tefillin)

ajudaica.com (online retailer. Do not buy the low-end bar mitzvah set. They are rarely lechatchila and I would only recommend them for people who genuinely can’t afford an unquestionably kosher set.)

Google around and you can find a few others. Tefillin are a big ticket item and you should shop carefully, inspecting in person if at all possible. If you have any specific questions, post them here. There are a couple soferim on the forum plus many other very learned people.

In Israel, the best bang for the shekel is Tefillin BetEL, an operation big enough to have shipping. They do use heavy presses and other machinery, and there are competitors that stress hand work, you can’t match the quality and it supports a large community of sofrim.

mean mr. mustard.

Check out tiferesjudaica.com. They’re a sofer and judaica store on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn, but do a great deal of business over the internet. I drove up from Atlanta to see them about a Megillas Esther. They sold me a beautiful, kosher Megillah and worked out a good price (it was a donation to my shul). While I was there, they checked my tefillin, found an error that no one had seen in the 20 years I’d been wearing them, and I bought new tefillin (of a higher level of hiddur than I had before), also for a reasonable price. I recently bought a new house and bought all of my mezuzos from them over the internet. Quality work. Great customer service. Kashrus is beyond question. Their head sofer literally wrote the book on safrus.

Hatzlacha, and may your new tefillin bring you much chizuk and nachas!

Mr. Mustard: There is only 1 place you’ll ever need to deal with:- Tefillin Beth El; They are simply wonderful, impeccable Kashrus standard, and very courteous & easy to deal with.

When I was in Israel during the 1980’s, The Rabbonim at my Yeshiva recommended me to go there, and I have been dealing with them ever since, including all of my sons’ Bar-Mitzwah Tefillin.

I used to go in person, but with the advancement of technology, you can do everything with them over their website.