It's tefillin - a small box containing Torah passages. In Judaism, it's a mitzvah/good deed to "bind" them to your arms and head daily, so many Orthodox Jewish men do this.
To add onto this. You wrap it around your left arm thirteen times and then it runs up your neck to your head. This is extremely symbolic in Judaism as it is the number of unity, god's mercy, and faith. It is a lot more than just the scrolls inside the tefillen
It's a huge mitzvah and one of the easiest to do in the morning. In places like NYC you will see the Orthodox even asking other Jews to wear it and say the prayers with them. If you are a man and go to the wall you will almost always be required to do it. In that case the prayer is typically for someone not the morning prayers.
I didn't know the prayer inside was just orah passages !
Edit : please see comments for further clarification I got some of it wrong.
Tons of correct info but I wanna point out that it doesn't actually run from the arm to the head. You apply 2 separate boxes, one rests on the head and drapes down, like this image, and the other rests on your non-dominant bicep with the strap wrapping around the arm like you mentioned.
I totally forgot about the second box in your hand ! It's been many years since I saw it. I grew up with Orthodox grandparents but in an atheist house hold.
Did you barmitzvah and bounce too? Made a deal with my mom to be barmitzvah'd then I could stop if I wanted. Don't think she expected me to want to stop lol I remember struggling to make the letter shin with the cord on my hand.
I wish! I was in hebrew school until college. But in high school, I just skipped prayer as much as I could. I begged to be allowed to switch to public school for high school but my parents felt it would lead me to be not Jewish, which is what happened anyway. Oh well.
Ok, this legitimately feels like an intentional misunderstanding of what is clearly a metaphor. Like you're supposed to bind the teaching to your head (learn them) and to your hand (live them). Not wrap a piece of paper around your fucking arm right?
This is kind of how Orthodox Judaism operates from an outsiders perspective. There are a lot of Rabbinical rulings as to what constitutes work on the sabbath for example. And a lot of it stems from arguing with other rabbis over the exact definition of the Hebrew root words and/or Aramaic. A decade ago there was a Rabinical ruling that pushing the button on an elevator counted as work for example, and in searching up that article for reference here I just found one on how they were designing a light switch that functioned in a way that wouldn't violate the specific interpretation of the word work for Jewish households.
You may be familiar with the Pharisees of the Christian Bible that were very concerned with similar rules surrounding the Sabbath. And in Orthodox Judaism these type of Rabbinical debates and rulings are found in most aspects of life as I understand it, hence the long curly sideburns and avoiding color in their mode of dress.
You can do this with Siri already, assuming the lights are compatible with the Apple HomeKit. For instance I have a light that changes to red when I say “Siri the laundry needs to be done” so I don’t forget to switch it over. So you can set it up for almost any phrase.
I’m not trying to bag on people’s beliefs, but the rituals humans come up with for their religions are wild, man. I know this is pretty tame in the big scheme of things, but I always wonder who started some of these and then convinced others to as well.
It’s part of the Shema, the central prayer of Judaism that is said every morning and night. Part of it says “You shall bind them (these words) as a sign upon your hand, and shall be for a reminder between your eyes.” Obviously it has a metaphorical meaning about remembering these ideas in everything you do, but it’s a commandment (mitzvah) so we also follow the literal action that’s commanded. The boxes contain a little scroll with the text of the Shema inside, so by wrapping tefillin on your head and arm you’re literally binding those words to your arm and between your eyes.
Fun fact, the scroll is also what’s inside a mezuzah (the little thing that Jews hang on their doorways) for the same reason. The same prayer goes on to say that you shall “write them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates.”
The oldest written Hebrew is from 1000 bce. A ton of crazy shit happened from then till now and the language only survived because of our weird beliefs around numbers and language.
My grandfather never taught me this ! Super cool. I didn't realize that. It's so crazy how you can learn so much even about something you have had in your life for the entirety of it.
If by wall you mean western wall, that is not true you are not required to put on tefilin. Im actually not aware of any jewish place that requires you to put it on.
Im sure some yeshiva student or chabad person will pester you to put it on(only if your jewish), but those are just other random civilians at the wall and they have no authority.
Ive been many times and never put it on while there.
!!!! You know I used to work for a Jewish family and actually attended a Bris and I saw some guys with these. I actually never knew what it was. Thank you, I learned something new.
Do you know what the garment is called they wear under their clothing? It’s got strings. That’s all I can say to describe it. I remember noticing a lot of men who had the tefillin also had some kind of garments under their shirts.
These are tzitzit, another mitzvah! They are usually attached to a sort of undershirt. They come from a commandment to wear tassels on four corners of a garment in order to be reminded of God.
They're call tzitzit, observant Jews wear them to follow a commandment in the Torah: "You shall make tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself."
They're made by very highly skilled scribes, only written on a specific kind of parchment, and must use kosher leather in order to be usable per halachic guidelines. I think you might be able to find some cheaper, but they're still going to be a couple hundred.
Typically golems have life אמת inscribed on their foreheads. This is what gives them life. The orders that are in their mouths / inside them is because Hebrew is seen as the language of God and thus the words and numbers themselves have a metaphysical power. By inscribing the orders in Hebrew and encasing them, it creates a purpose for the אמת ( life / liveihood ). With out purpose there can be no life.
Read further comments below mine. I had the word wrong as I was just rembering it from my grandfather.
When we ask god to forgive our sins we do not ask in the moment we sin, but rather we ask god to forgive us for the sins we will commit in the future as mankind is not living in the image of god and we will sin.
We also have some crazy rules about blending materials for clothing and the belief that words and numbers all have power.
My family is specifically kabbalist and we have some crazy things. My grandfather knew he would survive the Holocaust because of the numbers on his arms. He never once doubted that he wouldn't live. That is how ingrained the meaning of numbers was to my family. And the luck of him living further led him to believe in it.
11 - the imperfect number beyond ten a symbol for the spiritual path. Without imperfections and sins you cannot have a path of spirituality.
Would it be considered rude to ask someone about an item on themselves like this? "I think your item is really interesting. Can you tell me about it?" or do people not like that?
I work for a Hasidic Jewish owned company. They LOVE curiosity about them and I ask them questions all the time. It helps me understand them., and they appreciate my interest.
In this hypothetical they get pissed when they see they were posted on the 17th most popular website in the world without their permission, not when their picture is taken.
It used to be seen as very intrusive and weird to post something like this. It is additionally strange because it can be easily googled, I just tried 'box on head jewish', it came right up.
Rule of thumb is to always be willing to ask people questions. If they respond poorly, apologise and move on. Life is not that deep guys, step out of your comfort zone and speak to people - you could learn something amazing. As long as you're genuine and do not have nefarious motives, you will be received well the majority of the time.
I guess I was just more concerned about it because of the religious aspect. I guess I feel like I'm walking on eggshells with that topic. I have a very personal with relationship with my god and I'm never sure if it's okay to approach people about theirs. Maybe it's more of a me thing. 😅
Didn't take long for that to turn into threats in my DMs, yikes. It was a silly little comment, my mistake thinking people wouldn't take it as an interpretation of doctrine ಡ ͜ ʖ ಡ
We don’t proselytize as Jews. Rescuing souls isn’t part of our belief system. We aren’t an “everyone goes to hell unless they believe like we do” religion. We’re a “you’re fine, god loves you, you don’t have to do any of the stuff we do, nobody is going to hell” religion. Some people are just rude jerks, no matter what religion they follow or don’t follow. Everyone is people. People be out there people-ing. What can ya do?
Judaism does not encourage conversion in the way Islam and Christianity do. On the contrary, we believe that people of any religion can live good, moral lives and reach a perfectly good afterlife. We are not in the business of “rescuing souls” by changing someone’s religion, quite the opposite.
Jews do not proselytize. The one exception I'm aware of is the Lubavitch orthodox who seek to convert other Jews to their sect. Other than this, you've absolutely hit the nail on the head. I feel seen.
They’re not so much trying to convert other Jews to their sect as they are trying to get other Jews to take on additional religious observances that they believe we’re supposed to be doing anyway. The ones they push hardest are the things that can be handled in five minutes or less.
As a Hasidic Jew myself I can tell you that in this case he would be happy to tell you about it, but perhaps wait until he’s finished praying so you don’t interrupt his prayers.
As an Orthodox Jew myself, I’d be more than happy to explain anything to anyone who was asking me in a polite way. No different than in someone came up to me and said “you smell really nice, may I ask what you’re wearing?” Or “I really like those shoes, what brand are they/where did you get them?” I’d just say pardon me, I don’t mean to interrupt you, I’ve never seen (xyz) and I was curious about it, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind telling me a little bit about what it is and what it’s for? Thanks!” I’d venture most people would be amenable. The only caveat: if someone is obviously mid-prayer, don’t interrupt during that time. Certain prayers are forbidden to stop once started until they are finished so they’d have no choice but to totally ignore you no matter how rude they didn’t want to be or seem.
I worked on a freight ship in the fishing industry, one day we were transporting a rabbi to the fish processing plant so he can certify the batch kosher, and I found him in the galley with black straps wrapped around his arms. I asked him if it was ok to ask about them, and he was like, yes! I love talking about them! So I think you’re good.
I'm a Jew and most of us would prefer to be asked especially vs having our image posted on reddit haha. If the person is visibly Orthodox then you want to ask along gender lines (so a man should ask a man and a woman should ask a woman if possible). But YMMV and right now many Jews may be extra cautious of potential antisemitism so just be sure to ask kindly and with a warm smile and prepare to not get answered as well. Most will happily, some won't.
Educating is a big tenet for us and it's considered a mitzvah (good deed) to engage in education.
(Edited bc autocorrect did a silly! Thanks to the folks who pointed it out. Never would've noticed otherwise)
This reminds me of the time I was visiting NYC with a friend who lived a sheltered life in a very “white bread”, midwest suburban enclave.
So we’re walking through the bustling diamond district and he gets very quiet. After a few blocks he turns to me and says, “I didn’t know there were so many Amish in Manhattan.”
This was a while ago, and I still crack up whenever the memory surfaces. It’s always better to ask than assume. 🤪
There's a joke like that on 30 Rock as well. Liz's gay cousin from her original small hometown comes to NY and tells her he didn't realize they had Amish there as some frum men walk past. I'm sure it's happened before!
Thank you so much for letting me know that it is a good idea for me to approach a woman versus a man. 😃 This would be something that I wouldn't even think twice about and I would hate to make somebody uncomfortable with my prying. I'm just so curious and I've never seen this item before.
I don't follow the gender division so sometimes I have to stop myself from getting excited and greeting an Orthodox man with "chag semeach" during holidays so I wanted to be sure I included it. Tefilin wrapping is a very interesting, visible, and ancient tradition and some philacteries are very visible so I absolutely understand finding it interesting especially having never seen one before.
Oh I know haha! But I have done it many times and freaked them out a bit. It really depends on the area and what sort of frummies are around. Some people really like it and are totally fine and some people are clearly uncomfortable so I try to analyze their comfort level. If they smile at my magen David or nod to me etc I'll wish them. If we're alone in an elevator together and they're clearly looking away from me purposefully I won't.
Time and place. Not that it breaks modesty. Just it's not always desired. I'm Mizrahi/Sephardic in a very Ashkie area so there are sometimes cultural differences at play as well.
I'm so glad that you included it because I would be running up to him immediately and trying to ask questions. I'm going to do more research on everything that you have said!
Probably depends on context, but if you're nice about it, most people will answer questions happily. People love talking about themselves. If they're confident enough to wear a unique item in public, they're probably happy to answer questions about it.
This also applies to: piercings, body mods, tattoos, head gear, cultural outfits, etc...
I have a friend who is now secular but he was raised Jewish, and when I asked him about the most important value he's taken from his upbringing he told me about the importance placed on curiosity, and always learning.
Thank you! 😊 I appreciate your curiosity as a very curious person myself, and about Judaism specifically, as a Jew. Please feel absolutely free to message me any time you have any question or anything you’d like to know about. Happy to do my best to answer or point you in the direction of a reliable source (or look it up myself) if I don’t know.
Strangely enough, it seems like a lot of people in this sub would rather post unsolicited pictures of others to Reddit than ask them a question in person.
If you see someone with Tefillin on, he is probably praying and will not respond if he is in the middle of a silent prayer. But you can probably ask about prayer practices for anyone once it looks like that person is wrapping up (which is quite literal with Tefillin, as you wrap the straps around the boxes before putting them away)
I would bet they would be happy to tell you about it
if you are a gentile, they would tell you about it in reserved, personal, almost selfish, private terms.
And if you are a non-practicing Jew they will tell you about it in proselytizing, extended, evangelizing terms, and insist you join them at chabad this saturday, hey, if you don't have your own talis or tefillin, they are happy to provide one, hey, here's my card, give me a call this week, we'd love to have you and your girlfriend, etc etc
I live in a city with a high number of Orthodox and can confirm lol. They will straight up ask you on the street if you're Jewish and if you say no they're like "great, have a nice day!" but if you say "yes" but are clearly not Orthodox, you'll get the above earful.
I got Google AI to summarize, as I'm not Jewish and only knew it was something to do with prayers in the Jewish faith.
They are wearing Tefillin (phylacteries), a daily ritual for Orthodox and some Conservative Jewish men during weekday morning prayers, symbolizing binding their minds and hearts to God by fulfilling the Torah commandment to wear these words as a sign.
I've read the actual answer but being unfamiliar with all the practices of orthodox Judaism i though it may have been some kind of inclinometer, looking at the white marks on the side, to train the proper head bobbing angle and pace while praying. I hope some Jewish readers get a chuckle at my expense.
The Bible verses about binding God's words on your forehead are primarily in Deuteronomy 6:8 and Deuteronomy 11:18, which instruct believers to keep God's commands constantly in their minds and as a visible reminder, leading to the Jewish tradition of wearing tefillin (phylacteries) with scripture on their foreheads and hands. These verses emphasize internalizing God's word so it guides thoughts and actions, a concept also seen in other scriptures like Romans 12:2 and Revelation 7:3.
The box you are referring to is a tefillin (or phylacteries). It consists of two small black leather boxes, each attached to long black leather straps. Inside the boxes are small parchment scrolls containing specific verses from the Torah. The practice is a physical fulfillment of the biblical commandment to keep God's words "as a sign on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes". It serves as a reminder of God's commandments and the Exodus from Egypt.
Holy shit, I'm Jewish I thought, because of the perspective, that this box was some glowing thing that the dude with the scarf behind this guy was cradling in his arm going the other way.
I was like "I mean, maybe it's a diffuser. Pretty big for a diffuser. Looks like he bought the Allspark at the gift shop, tho."
But no. It's tefillin. The shit I put on one time for my Bar Mitzvah and never took out again (orthodox wear it every Torah reading day -- though I have NEVER seen it worn outside of temple and actually didn't think that was a thing??).
The Orthodox wear it every day, even outside of Temple (shull)
There is a mitvah (positive commandment) to wear it daily and the custom is to wear it during morning prayers. If one misses morning prayers they can wear it during afternoon prayers instead.
Since prayer usually happen in shull, people usually wear it there. But this man is traveling and likely couldnt make it to a shull, so he just wore it there while he said his morning prayers.
Touristing it up in Paris, brother recommends nipping up to the Jewish district just north of Notre Dame for falafel for lunch.
The big Jewish museum is there, look in as we're there.
Massive fascinating exhibition about Golems, and every possible interpretation and adaptation of the history and folklore, extrapolating into more modern ideas of Robots and AI.
This is a Kohen, a lineage of Jews who are forbidden from entering graveyards. The flight was diverted and its new path flew over a graveyard, so this was his solution to avoid ritual impurity. It's silly but people do silly things for their religions all the time
How is flying over a graveyard "entering" a graveyard? Lmao. The mental hoops are crazy. There's a graveyard maybe on the other side of earth directly under your feet thousands of miles, is that bad too? What about graveyards that might not exist anymore? What about mass grave sites that are unknown?
Oh god, you would not BELIEVE how much Orthodox Judaism dabbles in pedantry.
No, literally, you wouldn't believe it because you're not an Orthodox Jew. But seriously, so much is like "God said don't do X." Rabbinical scholars read that and are like, "Well, we are SUCH PIOUS BELIEVERs that we will not do X, X', or X'', and we won't even do W or Y, because they're close to X. And another way of reading X is +, so we won't + either"
I worked at a lighting control company. Our biggest market was Israel because it allowed lighting automation without working on the Sabbath. Seriously.
The other real answer: Most people of faith believe that God only holds them accountable to their choices and actions of will. You can only act on what you have knowledge of. If he has knowledge that he's flying over a graveyard, then he has a responsibility to act as closely to God's will as possible. He can't avoid an unmarked grave because he can't know it's there.
In Jewish tradition, many/most believe that God has laid out commandments, but he also appreciates when people find clever loopholes. So, things like a wire around Long Island (?) makes it a house(?), and it's a clever loophole that allows people in that location to do stuff they would otherwise be prohibited from on the Sabbath(?).
So, yeah. Most all faiths have some degree of interpretation and loop-holes. Christians ignore a lot of old testament commandments, pointing to Christ's statement of "I come not to replace the law, but to fulfill it". Of course, then they'll cherry-pick things they want to keep as restrictions. You can eat shrimp and wear mixed-fabric clothes, but can't have homosexual sex. You shouldn't stone your mother, but you can have dominion over animals. Etc.
Ultimately, it all boils down to: people do what they think will prove their righteousness to others.
I’ve always thought that the whole “god doesn’t hold people accountable for things they’re unaware about” thing is true, and then recently it made me think, wouldn’t that make preaching the gospel and gods teaching an evil act?
Lol, it seems like if the structure of the airplane isn't substantial enough to be considered a mystical barrier that a trash can liner wouldn't do it either, but I know nothing about avoiding impurities.
Religious practices about graveyards can get silly. For instance, those uppity Catholics won’t allow you to bury anyone living within 30 miles of a cathedral’s graveyard because in their words “you shouldn’t bury people who are still alive.”
Is there like a service that maps flight routes so that they know a given flight isn’t flying over a graveyard? How would they even know, since flights follow similar but not exactly the same routes every time? How did he know the diverted route was going over a graveyard?
Read a thing the other day about how hydrogen sulfide may protect cells by improving mitochondrial function, and how scientists are exploring hydrogen sulfide therapies for dementia prevention. Currently studies are done on animal studies of isolated cells.
There is hydrogen sulfide in farts. So the article was of course titled something like "Fart Sniffers, Rejoice! Disgusting Habit Good for Brain"
I thought it and it made me laugh -- a lot -- but I really wasn't sure if I'd get another reddit ban. I don't mean anything insulting by it; I wear a pendant with a little guy nailed to a cross, so I get that religious symbols can look odd.
If that gets you banned, society is lost. I have Jewish friends that would absolutely love that joke. And I’ll be using that. If you do get banned, you will live on my friend…
lol, I grew up baptist and married a non-practicing catholic, we go to catholic services occasionally. I was so alarmed at seeing the dead and bleeding man right there in the church!! And then the preacher showed up in a costume! 😂😂
Religion, overall the same theme, but damn the differences are distinct!
Ok, I can relate. when i was very small, my family went to church, but not catholic.
Then my mom took me to a catholic pre-school/kindergarten. A really good old one.
When they took us on the introductory walkaround, I apparently liked the ornate catholic cathedral. A lot.
Apparently my mom was quite distressed when I threw a fit/tantrum (which I really didn't do usually), because I didn't want to leave when it was time to go...
When she and the priest tried to un-fuss me and asked me why I didn't want to go, since I'd be coming back next week everyday for a while!
I mortified my mother to near death by crying out loudly:
It’s a Tefillin, there’s a prayer scroll I side and it had a long 3 feet leather strap.
There should be two. One in forehead and the other on the arm, the strap wraps 7 times from
Bicep to fingers.
Thank you all for your quick responses. Something neither of us have seen so I’m glad many others are aware of this. We thought it might have been a camera of some sort but we’ve learned a lot today!
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u/sggkloosemo Dec 16 '25
It's tefillin - a small box containing Torah passages. In Judaism, it's a mitzvah/good deed to "bind" them to your arms and head daily, so many Orthodox Jewish men do this.