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On Your Heart And Head: Jonah Bryk's Tefillin Bag
This is a painted fabric bag for carrying Tefillin. Sometimes called “phylacteries”, Tefillin are two leather boxes containing parchment inscribed with Biblical passages (Exodus 13:1-10, 11-16; Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 11:13-21) and worn during Shacharit (Jewish morning prayers). The shel rosh is tied to the head and the shel yad to the upper arm near the heart with leather straps that form the letters of Shaddai (God's name). On this piece, Chana transforms a picture of the leather strap into images and passages that epitomize the young man for whom this was made. His Hebrew name is in the center, written in the S'T'AM calligraphy used on Torahs and Tefillin.

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