Page 97 - Attractive Deception - The False Hope of the Hebrew Roots Movement

The prescribed way to affix the tefillin to the arm is to wrap it 7 times around the arm, 3 times
around the hand, and 3 times around the fingers, this being a total of 13 times. Kedar Griffo and
Michael Berkley, in their book African Origin Found in Religion and Freemasonry, make reference
to the wrapping of the tefillin around the body, drawing comparison to the practice of an initiate into
the first degrees of Freemasonry wrapping the cable-tow about their body.

Entered Apprentice

In the initiation ritual of Freemasonry, the first degree of which is Entered Apprentice, the candidate
is blindfolded, he has his left breast exposed, as well as his left leg below the knee, and he has a
cable-tow (a piece of corded rope) wrapped around his neck and body. I believe Griffo and Berkley
are correct in seeing a similarity between the introductory rites of Freemasonry and the bar mitzvah
practice of wrapping the tefillin around the young man’s arm and forehead. I will not go into detail
about the Masonic practice, but will return to it briefly when addressing the wearing of the tallit, or
Jewish prayer shawl.

There is more symbolized by the binding of the tefillin to the forehead and arm. Chabad is a Jewish
religious group that embraces both Talmudic and Kabbalistic teachings. On their website they
explain some of the symbolism of the tefillin.

Head Tefillin with Letter Shin/Sin

The head-tefillin has four compartments, for the four scrolls, and has a raised Hebrew letter shin
on each side.

The straps are made of leather painted black on one side. They are threaded through the lower part
of the boxes and knotted. The head-strap’s knot is in the shape of the Hebrew letter daled; the
hand-tefillin is knotted in the shape of the Hebrew letter yud. (Together, shin, daled, yud spell
Sha-da-i, one of the names of G-d.)