Frontlets

Leo of Modena’s ceremonies of the Jews. Part I. c. xi. art. 4. Exod. xiii. 1, &c.FRONTLETS. These were a square piece of hard calf’s-skin, including four pieces of parchment, upon which the Jews wrote four passages of the Law, and put them on their foreheads. Leo of Modena describes them after the following manner. They take four pieces of parchment and write, with ink made particularly for this purpose, and in square letters, these four passages, one on each piece. 1. Sanctify unto me all the first-born, &c. from the beginning of the xiiith chapter of Exodus to the 10th verse. 2. From the 11th verse of the same chapter to the 16th verse; And when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and what follows. 3. From the 4th verse of the vith chapter of Deuteronomy; Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and what follows to the 9th verse of the same chapter. 4. From the 13th verse of the xith chapter of the same book; If you shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, &c. to the end of the 21st verse of the same chapter; and all this in obedience to these words of Exod. xiii. 9.Moses: These commandments shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes.

These four little pieces of parchment are fastned together, and a square formed of them, upon which the letter Schin שis written; then a little square of hard calf’s-skin is put a-top; out of which come two leathern strings an inch wide, and a cubit and an half, or thereabouts, in length. This square is put upon the middle of the forehead, and the strings being first girt about the head, make a knot in the form of the letter ;דthen are brought before, and fall upon the stomach. It is called Teffila-Schel-Rosch, or the Tephila of the head. The most devout put it on both at morning and noon-day prayer; but the generality of the Jews wear it only at morning prayer. No one but the Chanter of the synagogue is obliged to put it on at noon as well as in the morning. See the figure of them under the article TEPHILIM.

It is a question whether the use of Frontlets, and other Phylacteries, was ordained by Moses as an observance to which the Jews were obliged, and such as required a literal compliance, so that the Hebrews have at all times worn them; or have been obliged to wear them. Opinions are much divided upon this point. They who believe the use of them to be rigorously binding, ground their persuasion on the text of Moses, which speaks of it in a positive Exod. xiii. 16.manner, as of other precepts of the Law; he requires the Commandments of God to be written upon the doors of houses, as a sign upon their hands, and as an ornament on their foreheads. If there is any obligation to write these commandments upon their doors, as the text intimates, there is the same for writing them on their hands and foreheads. The use of them was very common in our Saviour’s time, not only in Judæa, but likewise among the Indian Jews, the Persians, and Babylonians, according to St. Jerom. Hieronym. in Matt.xxiii. Ita & Theophylact.And long before, the Doctors, whom the High-Priest Eleazar sent to Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt, spoke of these Phylacteries as things at all times received among them, and refer’d the beginning of them to Moses.

They add, to confirm this opinion, that in the time of Moses, the Heathens carried abundance of charms and superstitious preservatives about them, and even some things which were filthy and immodest; that he, to cure his people of these bad customs, or prevent them, and secure them from them, enjoined them to wear upon their hands and foreheads Phylacteries, or Preservatives of another sort, that is to say, the sacred words of his ordinances.

Others on the contrary maintain that the precepts of Moses which mention these writings on the doors, the signs upon their hands, and Frontlets between their eyes, should be taken in a figurative and allegorical sense, as meaning that they should be very careful to preserve the remembrance of God’s Law, and observe his Commands; that they should always have them before them, and never forget them. It is certain that before the Babylonish Captivity, not the least footsteps of them were to be seen in the history of the Jews. The Prophets never inveighed against the omission or neglect of this practice; nor was there ever any question concerning them in the reformation of manners at any time proposed among the old Hebrews. We know nothing of the time wherein the work was written, which contains the history of the supposed version of the Septuagint, and the sending seventy Doctors, by the High-Priest Eleazar: nay, the Learned are at present well agreed, that this whole history is a fiction, and scarce older than Josephus and Philo. The received and almost general custom over all the East, of wearing Phylacteries and Frontlets, determines nothing either for the antiquity or usefulness of this practice. Jesus Christ did not absolutely condemn it; in itself it is very indifferent; but he condemned the abuse of them, which consisted in the Pharisees wearing them with affectation, and of a larger size than the generality of the Jews. The Caraite Jews, who adhere only to the letter of the Law, and despise the vain traditions of the Pharisees, do still at this day call other Jews, bridled Asses, because they wear these Tephilims and Frontlets¹. See hereafter PHYLACTERIES.

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