[Avodah] Tefillin On and Off

[Cantor Wolberg]

This week's portion contains the mitzvah for tefillin. Interestingly,  
we put on the shel yad first and then the shel rosh afterwards.  
However, when removing the
tefillin, we do it in reverse. Why in reverse?

The arm symbolizes physical strength and the head symbolizes the  
intellect and mind.  Before we can even think, we must possess  
physical strength. Hence, we begin
with the physical. However, when removing the tefillin, we are  
somewhat sad that we have to end that mitzvah. So in order not to get  
too upset, we slow down our
intellectual process (so as to take our mind off the fact that we are  
concluding the mitzvah), and then we can utilize our physical strength  
to conclude.

ri