Tephillin

Arm Tephillin

The illustration by non-Jewish artist Bernard Picart, though not accurate, certainly resembles the second photo below rather than the first (note the straps to and from the index finger).

Note: Picart's illustration shows the tephillin worn on the right hand. I have inverted it so it can be more easily compared with the photos below, which show tephillin worn on the left hand, as is correct for right-handed wearers.

Windings round the arm

Like all Sephardim the S&P wind the strap outwards over the arm, and back in under it (Ashkenazi custom is to wind the opposite way: outwards under the arm, and back in over it - which leads to a well-known, politically incorrect quip at the expense of the latter that I will not repeat here). Note, however, that Picart's illustration does not show seven such windings. Lovely as the number seven is, seven windings around the arm was never - and is not - a requirement. One simply winds till one gets to the wrist, using as many windings as necessary. Therefore Ben Ish Hai's dilemma as to whether to count the half-winding at the top as one of the seven - and his decision to add yet another winding "to be sure" - becomes irrelevant. But if you like seven windings - that's lovely.

Windings round the hand

The difference between the groups of Sephardim occurs after the index finger:

• The first image below shows the method used by most Sephardim, and it is the more stable of the two (especially for non-fleshy hands like mine). This is also the most common method among the S&P in Amsterdam. In this method the direction of winding is reversed after the index finger.
• The second image shows the method used by some S&P in London, New York, Amsterdam and elsewhere. The method is also used in some Yemenite communities. In this method the direction of winding remains the same throughout.

A third custom

• Some members of the Rodrigues-Pereira family, descendants of the late Hacham Rodrigues-Pereira of Amsterdam, have a unusual tradition for wrapping the straps of the hand tephillin, shown below. Other of his descendants tell me they do not know it. I wonder if it might be an invention of the Hacham's; a sort of personalised family tradition or "signature"? There is certainly no halachic problem with inventing one's own way of doing this. In fact I am now considering creating one for my own family!

Head Tephillin

The main point to make here is not a particularly S&P one. It is that virtually all Sephardim and Ashkenazim used to use a type of knot that looked like a square made of 4 smaller squares (left). This was referred to as a Hebrew letter Dalet, because the lower straps come out of it at right angles, like a Dalet.

The reference in the sources to a "Dalet-shaped knot" was misunderstood, and eventually led to the invention of a new and unwieldy knot that indeed itself looks like a Dalet (right). Many people who originally wore the old knot have now changed to the new one (or been changed to the new one by overzealous soferim without their knowledge), under the erroneous impression that it is the authentic "Dalet-shaped knot" - which it is not (knot).