If you look at pictures of orthodox jews, it’s not too uncommon for you to notice a little black box on their forehead. That’s there by design. Contained in those boxes are four verses: Exodus 13:1-10 and 11-16, and Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21.
Why do they wear the boxes? Because God told them to. Seriously. In every one of those passages listed above, God tells the Israelites to keep these passages “as frontals (or phylacteries) on their forehead.”
Most people would assume that God is being metaphorical here. These words are so important to remember, in other words, that it’s to be as if they are bound to your forehead.
Some Jews take God at His word, though, and put black leather boxes on their foreheads that contain these Scriptures. They call them Tefillin, and are usually worn during morning prayers.
It’s hard not to associate this type of practice with hypocrisy. In Matthew 23, Jesus accused the Pharisees of “broadening their phylacteries.” For those Jews, a wide phylactery was a way of displaying their piety and knowledge of God. It didn’t matter if they were actually pious—it only mattered that they looked pious.
But it’s important to remember that that wasn’t the original intent. God wasn’t concerned with having a literal box of Scriptures on your face; He wanted us to remember His word and keep it as close as possible.
What are those Scriptures? Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is the Shema, and is regarded as a foundational principle in the Torah. Deuteronomy 11:13-21 is another important section that details the blessings that come from obedience.
That leaves Exodus 13:1-16, which is split into two sections of Scripture inside phylacteries but is part of one broad unit. The first ten verses talk about the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, while verses 11-16 are about the redemption of the firstborn.
It may sound legalistic to place Scriptures about feast days and inheritance rights “top of mind” (if you’ll excuse the pun), but both of these passages stress the faithfulness of God. He delivered them just as He promised He would. Keeping those promises close by helps the average person to remember His continued faithulness in the future.
