Rebbe,
In the insights you write:
< person transgresses the prohibition of Bal Tosif (performance of a Mitzvah with more than the required amount of objects) when he wears two pairs of Tefilin on Shabbos. >> I don't understand this view of baal tosif. I had learned that baal tosif is intrinsic to something about the mitzvah itself. If one has 5 parshiyot and sections in his tefillin instead of the requisite 4 - that's baal tosif. If one attaches a 5th min to his lulav, esrog, hadassim and aravot - that's baal tosif. The second pair of tefillin that one is wearing on Shabbos is extrinsic. It's not something in the tefillin itself, it's just an additional pair. Please comment. Thank you. B'kavod, Sam Kosofsky
When the Torah indicates that only one of a certain item should be taken when performing a Mitzvah, one may only take one of that item while performing the Mitzvah or he transgresses Bal Tosif, just as if he would have added another Parshah to his Tefilin. However, if the Torah did not give a set amount, a minimum amount is understood, yet one may add more (see Mishnah Berurah 651:59).
It is possible that the Tana Kama holds that the Torah implies that one should only wear one Shel Yad and one Shel Rosh. The Ritva in fact gives this explanation on our Gemara.
All the best,
Yaakov Montrose
Dear Rabbi Montrose
If I understood your explaination correctly, a person wearing 2 pair of tefilin would be oveir bal tosif. However, I have seen certain Yemenite Jews wearing 2 boxes of tefilin on one strap - both of shel yad and shel rosh (the parshios in one is arranged according to Rashi and the other according to Rabeinu Tam) . How does that work?
Jeff Ram, Jerusalem
It depends on the person's intention. If a person understands that they can actually only be performing one Mitzvah, and they put on the Tefilin of both Rashi and Rabeinu Tam in order to fulfill the Mitzvah through the correct one, it would seem that the Biur Halachah (end of 561) agrees that one can theoretically do so (an Ashkenazi should still not do so, for various reasons).
This is because he is actually trying to perform one Mitzvah correctly, and has in mind that the other pair of Tefilin is not l'Shem Mitzvah. However, if one has in mind to do two Mitzvos of wearing Rashi Tefilin and Rabeinu Tam at the same time, it seems that they would have to have a different explanation of our Gemara, or other proofs leading to a different Halachic conclusion, to support that practice.
All the best,
Yaakov Montrose
בענין לעשות מצוה אחזת פעמיים אם הוא בל תוסיף, עי' תוס' ר"ה ט: ד"ה ותוקעים.
בענין דברי השואל ששני זוגות תפילין אינן תוספת במצוה עצמה אלא קיום אותו המצוה בכפילות, אולי יש לבאר שהרי ידוע הקושיא למה נקראת "תפילין של ראש" ולא "תפילין שעל הראש" (ובקאצק אמרו שמסר התפילין צריך להיות בתוך הראש ולא רק על הראש), אולי יש לומר שחז"ל הדגישו שחלק מהמצוה הוא שהראש יהא לבוש תפילה אחד של ראש, וזה לאפוקי שתים.
בברכת התורה,
יצחק לוינשטיין
מה שכתבת בשם הקאצקער - דבריו מבוססים על דברי הרמב"ם בהקדמתו לפרק חלק ובהלכות תשובה פ"ח ה"ב בענין עוה"ב שבו "צדיקים יושבים ועטרותיהן בראשיהם", ע"ש.
יישר כחך,
מרדכי קורנפלד
A source for your answer can be found in the Hilchos Tefilin of the Rosh, end of #5.