- Tefillin campaign
The Tefillin Campaign refers to a campaign by Chabad Hassidim to influence all male Jews, regardless of their level of religious observance, to don the
Tefillin (phylacteries) daily. This was the first of theMitzvah campaigns initiated by the LubavitcherRebbe , RabbiMenachem Mendel Schneerson , leader of theChabad movement. He announced it on June 3, 1967, just two days before the outbreak of theSix Day War . The Tefillin campaign has continued ever since, and has become a trademark of Chabad-Lubavitch outreach. [http://www.lubavitch.com/top.html?ixobject=2018602 A Six-Day War Inspiration: Forty Years Later, And Still Binding] (www.lubavitch.com)]Explanations
On one occasion Rabbi Schneerson gave two reasons for his particular choice of campaign, saying, "The first reason is that there is a passage in the
Talmud ic tractate of Rosh Hashanah [17a] which says that once a Jew wears Tefillin on his head—even one time in his life—he falls into a different category as a Jew." Secondly, "When a Jew in Miami sees pictures of Jews at theWestern Wall wearing Tefillin, he gets an urge to put on Tefillin himself." [ [http://www.chabad.org/library/article.asp?AID=274108 Why Tefillin? - First Person ] ]During the Six Day War
The
Western Wall was the focal point of the Tefillin campaign activity: "As soon as the Wailing Wall was liberated a cable arrived from the Rebbe with instructions to intensify the 'Action Tefillin' throughout Israel, and to immediately establish a Tefillin booth near the Wall where even those who did not regularly observe Tefillin be given the opportunity to do so." [http://www.lubavitch.com/top.html?ixobject=2018596]References
External links
[http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/timeline.asp?AID=514828 The Rebbe's Tefillin Campaign: A Timeline]
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