[Avodah] Wearing Tefillin All Day

[Micha Berger]

On Sat, Oct 13, 2018 at 11:23:41PM -0400, Joshua Meisner via Avodah wrote:
:                  A braissa on Shabbos 130a indicates that many people did
: not wear tefillin...

The context is, any mitzvah, like milah, that people were moseir nefesh
for when there was a government deceree is still muchzeqes beyadam.
Tefillin was given an example where there never was such a history,
and therefore our commitment remains less.

It says "merupeh beyadam", not that people weren't wearing them at all,
which is what you say here. Nor, more on-target for our discussion,
that people were wearing them just for davening instead of all day.

Possible referants:
Tzeduqim wore their tefillin on the bridge of their noses (bein einekha).
So many Jews were nikhshal.

Or maybe there were sects who believed like the Qaraim or R that there
are no physical objects involved at all to keep the ideas in sight and
at hand.

But it just struck me -- most likely, that they weren't careful to keep
a guf naqi. After all the gemara reads:

    ... kegon tefillin, adayin hi berufah beyadam.
    DEamar R' Yanai: tzerichim guf naqi...

What's that dalet doing there in "de'amar" if R' Yanai wasn't discussing
said ripui?

RGS writes <https://www.torahmusings.com/2014/01/why-no-tefillin-2>:

   Here's a question for you: Why don't men wear tefillin all day
   long? The mitzvah is not just during morning services; it is throughout
   the day (cf. Tur, Orach Chaim 37). So why don't we wear them all day?

   The answer to this question is historical...

   There is textual evidence that already in Talmudic times there were
   many people who did not wear tefillin....

His argument here is the same as yours.

   ... The Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 13a) specifically condemns those who
   never wear tefillin.

   This laxity by many on wearing tefillin continued into the Middle Ages.
   Tosafos (Shabbos 49a sv. ke-Elisha) write that one should not be
   surprised that at that time people were lax in tefillin, since they
   were in the times of the Talmud also. This is attested to in many other
   places, and in the times of the Geonim there are even implications that
   almost no one in the land of Israel wore tefillin. The Beis Yosef (Even
   Ha-Ezer 65) quotes the Kol Bo who suggests that in some communities
   ashes are not placed on a groom's forehead because the community
   members do not wear tefillin. There was even a responsum by R. Sherira
   Gaon, copied in many medieval works on halakhah, answering a question
   about whether it is yuhara (haughty) for a yeshiva student to wear
   tefillin when no one else does.

   It seems that in order to defend this practice, some rishonim utilized
   the idea that one who wears tefillin needs a "guf naki - clean body".
   The Shibbolei Ha-Leket (Buber ed., p. 382) quotes one view that "guf
   naki" means that a person is clean of sins....
   Sefer Ha-Chinukh (no. 421) states that "guf naki" does not refer to
   someone who has no sins or impurity, implying that someone else had
   suggested that it did. The author explicitly condemns those who are
   strict on the holiness of this mitzvah and thereby deprive the masses
   of the mitzvah. Rather, "guf naki" refers to the ability to refrain
   from passing gas and thinking improper thoughts while wearing the
   tefillin.

   R. Moshe of Coucy (Semag, mitzvos aseh no. 3) tells of how he would
   travel around thirteenth-century Europe, preaching to people that they
   should wear tefillin during the morning prayers. Even if they cannot
   control themselves all day, people can certainly maintain a guf naki
   for the prayer services (that is the view of Tosafos [Pesachim 113b sv.
   ve-ein]; Rosh [Hilkhos Tefillin, no. 28 and Beis Yosef [Orach Chaim
   37]; footnote 8 in the Schlesinger edition of Semag assumes the Semag
   agrees). Evidently, this practice of wearing tefillin only during
   morning prayer services took hold and the prior practice of widespread
   abandonment of the mitzvah slowly turned into minimal performance of it
   during the morning prayers.

   However, someone who cannot control himself and cannot maintain a guf
   naki may not wear tefillin. Despite the biblical obligation, someone in
   a definite situation such as that should not wear tefillin at all
   (Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chaim 38:1). For this reason, the Arukh
   Ha-Shulchan (Orach Chaim 38:6) rules that those who are not obligated
   in the mitzvah of tefillin -- such as women -- should never place
   themselves in even a doubtful position of not maintaining a guf naki.
   ...

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             I always give much away,
micha at aishdas.org        and so gather happiness instead of pleasure.
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