Recently my son was Bar Mitzvahd. Before I ordered his teffilin I decided to measure the size of his arm.

I was
surprised to realize that the standard size teffilin used by Anash nowadays didnt fit on the area kosher for
putting on the shel yad.
Let me elaborate for those unfamiliar with the details. The only place kosher for putting on the shel yad is on the
lower part of the biceps. As the AR explains in Shulchan Oruch (27:2), to determine the right place, one should
divide the length of the upper arm in half, the bottom half down until the lower end of the muscle (but not all
the way down to the elbow) is the place for the teffilin shel yad. That means that the entire teffilin including the
base (the titurah and maavarta) must be on this spot. Even if a drop of the teffilin is over or under this spot, the
mitzva is not fulfilled (AR 27:14 re: the shel rosh. MB ibid SK 4, 33, 34, Biur Halacha S.V. Babosor and S.V. Ad
Sof). [Although there is a shita that the maavarta is not considered part of teffilin, and hence does not have to be
on the muscle, this is apparently a daas yochid]. See attached diagrams.
[The GRA holds that it is kosher to go up past the center of the upper arm, and the MB says that bedieved one
may rely on this. But the AR clearly accepts the view of the Shulchon Aruch that allows only the lower half of
the upper arm].

Are many of
our Bar
Mitzva boys
not wearing
Teffilin?!

I measured the size of the upper arms of an entire

class of Bar Mitzvah boys and found the average
size to be a little under 10 inches (25 cm). Half
that is less then 5 inches. The bicepts start about
an inch past the elbow, which leaves us less then
4 inches. The size of the standard Chabad teffila
shel yad is about 3 inches (7.62 cm) from the
tip of the titurah till the tip of the maavarta,
which means that if the boy goes off less than a
half inch either way he will not be fulfilling the
mitzva of the shel yad!
Obviously it is irresponsible to assume that a 13
year old can be so careful and precise as to get
it right each time. Furthermore some boys are
smaller and it is absolutely impossible to fit the
teffila on the place allotted for the shel yad!
I asked my shver, Rav Dovid Schochet, Mora
DAsra of Anash in Toronto, and he instructed
me to purchase smaller teffilin for my son.

[As known, it is our minhog to follow the shita of

the geonim that the teffilin should be 2x2 etzboeiyim (about 4x4 cm). The Rebbe says that from
the wording of the AR (ibid 32:63) it seems that
this refers to the batim without the teturah. The
Pri Magadim says explicitly that according to Rashi the shiur relates to the batim excluding the teturah. The Rebbe
(Igros 11 p. 364) says that our minhog is to be mehader according to this shita. However it is certain that this is
only a hidur and should not be practiced if it might cause the mitzva to be completely lost.]
(I recently saw in the Haskashrus (#429) that Rav Yosef Simcha Ginsburg makes the same point.)
As I inquired I found out that Rav Moshe Landa of Bnei Brak purchased small teffilin for all his sons when they
were Bar Mitzvad, and only when they got older did he replace them with the standard size.
I want to point out, that when I tried ordering smaller teffilin for my son I found that this was no simple matter.
I wanted to get the AR ksav for the parshios, but after making several inquiries to distributors of teffilin I was
told that all the sofrim who write the AR ksav only write the parshios for the big teffilin and cannot right smaller

letters to fit in smaller battim. After much effort I finally located a Lubavitcher sofer in E. Yisroel who wrote me
a beautiful pair of smaller parshiyos to fit in the smaller teffilin.
It should be noted that there is an easy way around this. The hiddur of big teffilin only applies to the shel rosh.
There is no halacha that the shel rosh and shel yad have to be the same size. So if the batim machers made the
shel rosh large and the shel yad small we would fulfill all hiddurim and requirements. Alternatively the battim
could be made the full 4x4 cm but the tuturah and maavarta could be made very thin. (I heard that this is what
Rav Osdoba does).
It should also be noted that the amount of space available for the head teffilin is not clear. The MB (ibid 27:33 and
Biur Halacha there) brings a machlokis if it can be placed on the entire upper part of the head or only on half that
area. According to the latter view, a Bar mitzva boy is best to get the shel rosh smaller to.
In conclusion, the custom as it stands today that all Bar Mitzva boys regardless of size are given the big teffilin
seems to be a BIG PROBLEM!
Isser Z. Weisberg, Toronto

Diagram from Hilchos Tefillin by

Rabbi Shimon D. Eider
a. Area under biceps, not kosher.
b. Kosher area according to Alter
Rebbe. c. Additional kosher area
according to the GRA. d. Area above
biceps not kosher.

Diagrams from Hanochas

Tefillin Kehilchosa by Rabbi
Moshe Chanina Neiman
Diagram 1 shows the space
(2) necessary to distance the
edge of the Teffilin (1) from the
elbow (3). Diagram 2 shows the
spot up until ware the tiffilin
my reach according to the Alter
Rebbe (1) which is until half the
upper arm (2). And the upper
limit according to the GRA (3).