Over the past few weeks I've been having acupuncture treatment. At the end of our session today, our last, my acupuncturist handed me a photocopy of an article* from the Journal of of Chinese Medicine, which argued that tefillin "form a potent acupuncture point formula," hitting a series of acupuncture points which, specifically, "[elevated] the spirit and [cleared] the mind."
According to the author -- who examined ashkenazi, sephardi, sephard and chassidic wrapping techniques -- the tefillin box and straps hit three acupuncture points on the skull and "a good number of the over 50 acupuncture points on the arm."
If someone handed an acupuncturist the... point formula and asked what was being treated, there is little doubt that mental and shen issues would be a strong part of the pattern. What is surprising is that such a point formula would be found in a non-Chinese procedure that has been continuously practised for many thousands of years. It may be that the originators of the tefillin ritual had some inkling of its special effects, even though they may have lacked the depth and specific knowledge we have today.
The order of wrapping is also very interesting in that the entire arm is not wrapped at once, but stopped prior to stimulating the hand points of the Pericardium Channel ... Perhaps this is a subtle clue to our present day practice of acupuncture, recommending to us that we add the point multipliers towards the end of our treatment protocol. This concept deserves further exploration.
Regardless of the belief system behind the procedure, it seems clear that putting on tefillin is a unique way of stimulating a very precise set of acupuncture points that appears designed to clear the mind and harmonise the spirit.
The thought, I suppose, is that this would work as "acupressure" rather than "acupuncture."
Personally, despite having a very good experience with acupuncture over the past few weeks, I'm sceptical (if you stick a big box and wide leather straps on your forehead and arm, aren't you almost guaranteed to hit acupuncture points?). Still, I'm sure this will give great pleasure to a large number of people who will be thrilled at the idea that our tradition intuited (or deliberately used?) some of the principles of this ancient Chinese art thousands of years ago...
*"Tefillin: An Ancient Acupuncture Point Prescription for Mental Clarity" by Steven Schram, Journal of Chinese Medicine, October 2002
This post was written by Miriam Shaviv
Why pay £4 for the article when you can get it here: http://www.koshertorah.com/PDF/tefilin.pdf
Posted by: GF | October 25, 2006 at 10:01 PM
Tefillin boxes are actually small and the straps are narrow. Less chance of coincidence than you might have thought.
Posted by: C | October 27, 2006 at 08:42 AM