First Time

I just put on my tfillin by myself for the first time. And now my left hand smells like leather- does that always happen, or just until the tfillin wear in? (What's the singular of tfillin, anyways?)

The actual experience was pretty neat, if a bit distracting from teh rest of praying, since it was new. But when I got them on, it had that same feeling of Rightness that I got the first time I saw people really putting them on (versus the biannual demonstration the rabbi gives to the 6th and 7th grades at the hebrew school I went to). It'll take some practice, but I'm pretty happy with step one.

First Time

I just put on my tfillin by myself for the first time. And now my left hand smells like leather- does that always happen, or just until the tfillin wear in? (What's the singular of tfillin, anyways?)

The actual experience was pretty neat, if a bit distracting from teh rest of praying, since it was new. But when I got them on, it had that same feeling of Rightness that I got the first time I saw people really putting them on (versus the biannual demonstration the rabbi gives to the 6th and 7th grades at the hebrew school I went to). It'll take some practice, but I'm pretty happy with step one.