Tefillin Without Parshiyos

Question: I ordered a pair of tefillin for our son and asked that they be ready for his bar mitzva, not realising that he would begin wearing them a month earlier. As the parshiyos are not yet ready, may he wear the batim without the parshiyos, or should he borrow a fully kosher pair of tefillin in the meantime?

Answer: The Gemara (Sukka 42a) teaches that when a child is old enough to look after his tefillin properly, his father should purchase tefillin for him. Tosafos (Arachin 2b) offers two explanations for why the Gemara specifically instructs the father to purchase tefillin, whereas for other mitzvos it is sufficient simply to train the child in their observance. Either because, in the case of tzitzis and lulav, a child will likely already have access to them, or because tefillin involve a significant expense.

The Gemara (Menachos 34b) further teaches that the tefillin shel rosh is considered holier than the tefillin shel yad. Therefore, one may repurpose a tefillin shel yad into a tefillin shel rosh, but not the reverse.

R’ Yitzchak Yehuda Leib Rabinowitz (Darkei Teshuva, Sukka) offers another explanation. Since tefillin are tashmishei mitzva, and a twelve-year-old is only obligated to wear them for the purpose of chinuch, which is miderabanan, he should not wear his father’s tefillin, which were designated for the father’s obligation, which is mideoraisa. Doing so would constitute a lowering of their kedusha.

R’ Moshe Sternbuch (Moadim Uzemanim 6:78), however, rejects this argument, maintaining that there is no concern of lowering their kedusha in this case, since tefillin are objects used to perform a mitzva and may therefore be used by adult and child alike.

Similarly, R’ Ephraim Greenblatt (Rivevos Ephraim 1:30; 2:24) notes that the widespread minhag is to train boys using an adult’s tefillin and that this does not constitute any lowering of their kedusha, since the object itself is not being downgraded. On the contrary, the use of the tefillin for the mitzva of chinuch only enhances their kedusha. Nevertheless, he stresses that the tefillin used for chinuch must be fully kosher, as a child should not become accustomed to performing mitzvos with invalid items.

R’ Yosef Shalom Elyashiv (Asrei Haish OC 5:12) also maintained that this is not considered a lowering of kedusha.

In conclusion, a boy preparing for his bar-mitzva should not wear tefillin without the parshiyos inside. He should borrow another fully kosher pair until his own tefillin are ready.

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