A Sign on the Hand and Between the Eyes in the Laws of Tefillin

"And it shall be a sign for you" (Exodus 13:9) — for you, and not for others. Since it says "on your hand and between your eyes," one might think a man may place the binding-loop of his tefillin on the outside; Scripture therefore says "for you, and not for others." "On your hand and between your eyes." One might think: just as "between your eyes" means four [compartments], so "on your hand" means four. Scripture therefore says "for a sign [singular]" — and not four, not three, not two, but one. Rabbi Judah says: just as there is one sign within, so there is one sign without. Rabbi Yose said: Judah retracted this. And Rabbi Judah concedes regarding one who has two head-tefillin and none for the hand, that he brings leather and covers one of them and makes it into a hand-tefillin. One might think he may place it on the palm of his hand. Scripture says "on your hand and between your eyes": just as "between your eyes" is on the raised part of the head, so "on your hand" is on the raised part of the arm. But you do not know in which place he places it, whether on the right or on the left; Scripture therefore says, "And you shall bind them... and you shall write them" (Deuteronomy 6:8-9): just as writing is with the right hand, so binding is upon [the weaker hand bound by] the right. And since binding is done with the right hand, the tefillin is placed on the left. And so it says, "there too Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me" (Psalms 139:10); and it says, "she put her hand to the tent-peg, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer" (Judges 5:26); and it says, "why do You hold back Your hand, even Your right hand?" (Psalms 74:11). Thus wherever "hand" is stated, you take it to mean the left, unless Scripture specifies the right. Since it says "on your hand and between your eyes," one might think: just as "on your hand" is one sign, so "between your eyes" is one. Scripture therefore says "totafot, totafot, totafot" [spelled in three places, two defectively and one fully] — there are four compartments stated. One might think he places them in four separate places; Scripture says "and for a remembrance between your eyes," teaching that he places them in one place. Rabbi [Judah the Prince] says: in two places it is written "totafot" defectively and in one place "totafot" fully, teaching that he places them in one place. One might think he places them upon his forehead; Scripture says "on your hand and between your eyes": just as "on your hand" is on the raised part of the arm, so on the head it is on the raised part of the head [the hairline]. Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says: it is free to be expounded by a comparison of equal phrasing [gezeira shava]. It says here "between your eyes," and it says elsewhere, "you shall not gash yourselves nor make a bald patch between your eyes for the dead" (Deuteronomy 14:1): just as "between your eyes" there means the place of hair, so "between your eyes" here means the place of hair. "That the Torah of the LORD may be in your mouth" (Exodus 13:9) — to include converts and freed slaves. Another interpretation: "that the Torah of the LORD may be in your mouth" — to exclude women; just as tefillin is a positive commandment bound to a fixed time, from which women are exempt, so women are exempt from every positive commandment bound to a fixed time. "The Torah of the LORD in your mouth" — from that which you may eat with your mouth; from here they said: one writes tefillin only on the hide of a ritually clean animal.