Again, someone came up to me at the tefillin stand and asked, "Why do you use tefillin as your tool to reach out to other Jews? Why not one of the many other mitzvot?"

     I explained, "Tefillin are a Mitzvah that includes physical action, and physical objects… not just thoughts, or words. This makes the experience more significant to them. Also, they are an obligation for all Jewish men, all day long, six days a week. And they are uniquely Jewish. No other people have such things in their religious service."

     What is their simplest meaning? That we bind them on our arm, showing that we will do what Hashem told us to do, and we place them on our head showing that we will think about what Hashem told us to think about.

     And, although we do not do the mitzvah for this reason, an interesting study some years ago showed that the act of tightly wrapping the leather strap around the arm on a daily basis appears to help blood flow and lower risks of a heart attack.

     Doing the mitzvah strengthens our heart in more than one way!