First Time

[debka_notion]

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.

Comments

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

My hand still smells like leather, anyway. Well, when I've been wearing them, not continuously since October of 2002...

IS there a plural? I mean, there are two of them as it is, and without either one they're not tfillin anyway.

[shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com]

Mine don't really leave a scent anymore.

Tefillin is an irregular mishnaic Hebrew plural. Mishnaic because you get a nun rather than a mem at the end (as in qiddushin, mehadrin, etc.), irregular because it's actually feminine. The singular form is tefillah. Individually, they're called the tefillah shel rosh and the tefillah shel yad. (S'mikhut isn't really used in this case.)

[zachkessin.livejournal.com]

Well I think the word is infact masculine, but I don't remember.

I found for the first year or so it was inevitable that I had to stop and adjust the fit on my arm somewhere in the middle of the davening. Just stop adjust and then go on with your davening.

Oh on Rosh Chodesh, remember to take them off before musaf.

[shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com]

Feminine. You can tell by the adjectives that modify it; "tefillin gasot" and things like that.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

There is hope, then. Thank goodness. Not that I mind the smell of leather- it's just a bit disconcerting, and I expect it will be more so once I stop thinking about the fact that I put on tfillin that morning so much (aka once I start doing it regularly for a while). Sort of like having the smell of someone's perfume/cologne on your hands after you've finished dancing with them- only, well- I presume that G-d doesn't smell like leather. (THe closest analogy I could get between dancing with someone and wearing/praying with tfillin would, I guess, be dancing with G-d. It's a pretty idea, at least, if pretty inaccurate.)