0591 - Covering Part of the Tefilin with the Talis

00:01 When the Rebbe would daven Shacharis in the weekdays with a minyan with tallis and tefillin, there was something interesting that we saw. Most of the years, he only davened Shacharis with the minyan in the weekdays a few times a year. Besides Tov Shen Havhei, when he davened every day for the Amud because it was a novel. It's only after the Rebbe's had passed away, so he davened for a year f- whole year for the Amud, and then he continued davening Shacharis every day with a minyan. But when he davened with a minyan Shacharis with tallis and tefillin, there was something interesting that we saw that he did. That from time to time, mainly before Krishme or before Shemoneh Esreh, the Rebbe would take with his hand, with his fingers, the top of his tallis and pull it up to make sure that it covers part of the tefillin. It would cover the mabarta and the teturah, which are the part of the tefillin that sticks out from the bayis towards the head. He'd make sure that that's covered with his tallis. We didn't really understand why he did that, to make sure that part of the tefillin was covered with his tallis. Till in Tov Shen Lamed Alef, it's printed Likutei Levi Yitzchak on Zohar, the Rebbe's father's sefer on the Zohar. And there we saw that in the Zohar, Parshas Kedoshim, Daf Peh Alef Amad Alef, there is the ha'arah of his father explaining what the Zohar says. The lashon of the Zohar there

01:24 is, "Kad banash anach tefillin v'yischafi b'kisei d'mitzvah." That when a person puts on tefillin and covers it with the covering of the mitzvah. Now, the covering of the mitzvah, that's the tallis. And the strange part of that Zohar is that here it seems at first you put on tefillin and then you put on the tallis, because it says first you put on the tefillin and you cover it with the kisei d'mitzvah, the kisei, the cover of the mitzvah, which is the tallis. The Zohar himself says in a different place that tallis comes first. So what does the Zohar mean here? Especially that the Zohar itself, in Parshas Vaymidbar in a different place, says that tallis comes before t- uh, tefillin. So what does the Zohar mean first mentioning the tefillin and then the cover of the mitzvah, which is the tallis? So the Rebbe's father in his hagahos, in his ha'arah, writes, "I am looking to the hagahos of Rav Chaim Vital in the Shut Zoharos." There it says that the Zohar meant lav davka. It's not meduyak, it's not exactly, but he doesn't mean that the tallis comes after the tefillin. It just mentions it that way without the davka. But the Rebbe's father has a different pshat. He says, well, it doesn't, it doesn't mean when you put on the tallis, but it goes on putting the tallis on the tefillin after the tefillin is on. Which means first you put on the tallis, then you put on the tefillin, and then you

02:36 cover with the tefillin, with the tallis, you cover the tefillin. And he quotes that's what it says in Mishnah Chassidim. And the Rebbe in different farbrengens throughout the years spoke about this ha'arah of his father on the Zohar, as it's collected in the Sefer Toras Menachem Tferes Levi Yitzchak on Parsh-- on Chumash Vayikra, page Kuf Peh Ches. So when we saw what the Reb-- the Rebbe Levi Yitzchak writes, that after you have the tallis and then you have the tefillin, you should cover the tefillin with the tallis, we understood why the Rebbe would do it. That before Krishme or before Shemoneh Esreh, not always the same time, he would make sure that at least part of the tefillin is covered with his tallis. Because his father writes clearly that this is the pshat in the Zohar, based on the Mishnah Chassidim, that after you put on the tefillin, which comes after the tallis, you should take the tallis and have-- cover the tefillin, so the Rebbe would cover part of the tefillin with the tallis before Krishme or before Shemoneh Esreh or other times during davening.