I have to say honestly that I never really thought about the question. I just assumed that after the Jews got the Torah of course they started wearing tefillin, after all it is one of the 613 mitzvos. However, it is not so simple.
Tefillin have to have the 4 parshiyos from the Torah placed within them. The Malbim makes the following fascinating point. There is a dispute between R' Yochanan and Resh Lakish whether the Torah was given Megilla Megilla or תורה חתומה ניתנה. Rashi explains that megilla, megilla means that as soon as an event happened Moshe would write it down and after 40 years in the Midbar he put them all together and made a sefer torah. The other opinion is that the Torah was only written down after 40 years in the midbar when it was finished (this requires a post of it's own). The Malbim says that according to Resh Lakish who holds that תורה חתומה ניתנה they didn't put on tefillin all 40 years because they didn't have the parshiyos while according to R' Yochanan they did once the 4 parshiyos were written. However, the חבצלת השרון points out that there is an explicit medrash in Shir Hashirim that states that the Jews wore tefillin in the midbar and he discusses additional sources relating to this question.
Someone pointed this חבצלת השרון out to me to show me that traditional sources deal with historical/mesora questions. The problem I have is that yes they deal with it on a halachic level, explaining the halachic dispute, but they don't deal with the underlying issue, WHERE IS THE MESORA? How can there be a dispute whether the Jews wore tefillin in the midbar? More importantly, how can the Gemara have a machlokes R' Yochanan and Resh Lakish about how the Torah was given? How can it be that we don't know how Torah was transmitted in the midbar?
I am of the opinion that the Jews wore tefillin in the midbar prior to Shmoth (Exodus) 33.4-6 which states that "the Children of Yisrael stripped themselves of their (ornaments)" - "Aydyam" after the incident of the Golden Calf!
ReplyDeleteThe Kuzari, as reported in the Malbim connects Shmoth (Exodus) 33.4-6 to tefillin.
I'm connecting "Aydyam" to (Shmoth 13.9 oolzicharon, and to totafoth, Devarim [Deuteronomy]6.8) as the plural for "witnesses" although it might be better to say that "aydyam" is a contraction of Ayd yam (witness[es] [at the] sea [of reeds]); or, "my witnesses" (at the sea of reeds).
The Talmud in Shabbat 57b: "Rather, Rav Yehuda said in the name of Abaye: A totefet is an appuzainu, an ornament worn on the forehead."