I swear, this is not the Religion Blog, I’ll get back to regular programming shortly.
As I mentioned, I’m a Catholic, and I like a little levity with my religion, thank you. I think that many other religions take themselves too seriously (*COUGH*evangelicals*COUGH*), and they should realize that it’s OK to have your traditions, but be able to recognize the absolute absurdity of them, too. Take, for example, the tefellin (phylacteries) that Jewish men wear. The rules concerning making, wearing, and storing these things is incredible.
Detailed rules about how to construct a tefillin and how to wear it are found in the Talmud. According to tradition, the texts inserted into tefillin must be written in order, without any mistakes or corrections to the almost 1,600 characters. For the hand tefillin, all four passages must be inscribed on a single piece of parchment and placed in the leather container. The head tefillin requires four individual pieces, each placed in its own subcompartment. (Given the intricacies of their production, a pair of handmade tefillin can cost more than $500.)
The tefillin are tied in place with knots that represent Hebrew characters, according to a careful procedure. In general, the head tefillin gets strapped on such that the knot in back sits just above the nape of the neck. The leather strap from the hand tefillin (which sits atop the biceps of the nondominant arm) is wound thrice around the upper arm, seven times around the forearm, and then three more times around the middle finger.* Tefillin cannot be worn at night, in the bathroom, or while eating a meal. Boys aren’t allowed to wear tefillin until after their bar mitzvah; women can choose to wear them but rarely do.
Now this, people, is very funny. I don’t really think God – er, Jehovah/Adoni/HaShem – cares how many times the strap gets wrapped around a middle finger. This is very indicative of man’s need to create ritual and structure, which can be very beneficial in everyday life – as long as you don’t take it to extremes. Another great example of a ritual that’s gotten out of hand is Cat In Rabat’s excellent post (Oct 17th, “If I Were a God”) that mentions the ridiculous question of whether diabetics should be allowed to take insulin during Ramadan. Will we ever break free of this kind of behavior? I fear not.