https://opensiddur.org/?p=23477The Phylacteries, a poem by Rabbi Alter Abelson (1931)2019-01-24 11:21:17The poem "The Phylacteries" (1931) by Rabbi Alter Abelson.Textthe Open Siddur ProjectAharon N. Varady (transcription)Aharon N. Varady (transcription)Alter Abelsonhttps://opensiddur.org/copyright-policy/Aharon N. Varady (transcription)https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/105Tefillin20th century C.E.57th century A.M.English vernacular prayerקמעות qame'ot (amulets)
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In love of lawful liberty,
My head and arm I bind with glee,
With holy phylacteries, to tell
That slavery lost her snaky spell.
For freedom is a heavenly creed
Which all the centuries will heed.
Freedom from kings and masters proud,—
From tyrannies of court and crowd.—
Behold the leathern straps and case
With which my hand and arm I lace—
The case contains a parchment writ
With words which hearts and planets knit.
The words are rays of Honor’s sun;
God’s mandates which civilization won
And which will bring, with song, the good
And long-awaited brotherhood.
And so, I deck my hand and arm
With T’filin as we don a charm.
With hints of God before my eyes,
I rise through prayer to higher skies.
The Bible texts tucked in within
The case, are often shields from sin;
Reminders they to straying man
That Heaven is watching all we plan.
The verses, which our love increase,
Are amulets for human peace.
As trains need rails, as birds need wings,
So man needs law, a law that sings.
Oh, Ceremonies, thoughts which live,
Dynamic life to dreams you give.
You are live history anew;
We live what we believe through you.
Before my bread, my God I need.
My faith is life, and life my creed.
The poem “The Phylacteries” can be found in Alter Abelson’s collection of poetry, Sambatyon and other Poems, vol. 1 (New York: Ariel Publications, 1931), p. 149.
Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin, Ministarot Nakeniשְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides administering the Open Siddur Project and this website.)
Scholar, poet, and translator Alter Abelson was born in Lithuania on July 17, 1880, and grew up in Manhattan, where he studied John Keats, John Milton, William Shakespeare, and Percy Shelley. In 1903 he received his Master of Hebrew Literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary and in 1920 received a law degree from the New Jersey Law School (now Rutgers). Abelson, who served as a rabbi in synagogues in New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, also served as a chaplain for the New York Board of Rabbis from 1947 to his retirement in 1960. Abelson authored four poetry collections, Helen and Shulamith (Whittier Books, 1959), Songs of Labor (Paebar Co. Publishers, 1947), Sonnets of Motherhood (1938), and Sambatyon and Other Poems (The Ariel Publications, 1931), and translated work by the Hebrew poets Judah Halevi and Chaim Nachman Bialik. He died in 1964.
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