What constitutes a Mesorah? When do we say there is no Mesorah? If there is a Machlokes Rishonim in an area of Halachah does that mean, ipso facto, that there is no Mesorah? Let us take something as basic as proper pronunciation of Lashon ha'Kodesh. As we know there are quite a few different ways of pronouncing the consanants and vowels of Lashon ha'Kodesh, as practiced by different Kehilos in Klal Yisrael -- Sephardim, German Ashkenazim, Lithuanian Ashkenazim, Teimanim, etc. Yet we say that each of these ways of pronunciation is a valid Mesorah even though they are at odds with each other (pronunciations in one system that are not valid according to the other system), and even though clearly Moshe Rabeinu pronounced things only one way. On the other hand, where can we say that there is no Mesorah? Wearing Techeles in Tzitzis would appear to be such an example. Even if all Jews today decided to wear Techeles made from murex trunculus, we would still say that the Mitzvah today has no Mesorah (on exactly how to produce the dye, add it to the wool, number of strings, etc.). The undeniable fact is that the Mitzvah was not practiced by any group of Jews for hundreds of years and therefore there is no Mesorah (this is not an endorsement for any particular opinion in the ongoing debate as to whether Jews should wear Techeles). Therefore, I am suggesting that Mesorah just means that a Kehilah can legitimately say that what they are doing has been practiced Dor Achar Dor without interuption back to Matan Torah.

Back to Tefilin: Even if it were the case that different groups of Jews have been wearing different kinds of Tefilin -- each following a valid Shitah in Halachah -- as far back as we can see into the misty past, it does not mean that there is no Mesorah, just different Mesorahs. All the more so, where the Minhag seems to be almost universal to wear Tefilin following the Shitah of Rashi. The Sefer Mitzvos ha'Gadol (Smag) writes (Mitzvos Aseh 23) that the custom in both Eretz Edom (Christian Europe) and Eretz Yishmael (North Africa and the Middle East) is to wear Rashi Tefilin. That is pretty much the entire Jewish world in the Smag's day. To my knowledge there is not a single Kehilah today anywhere that follows the opinion of Rabeinu Tam to the exclusion of Rashi. And the same can probably be said historically. The Smag says (ibid.) that an ancient pair of Tefilin was found near the Kever of Yechezkel ha'Navi and it conformed to the opinion of Rashi. Modern archaelogical finds seem to corroborate this. Noted Biblical historian, Rabbi Yehuda Landy (author of "Uncovering Sefer Yirmeyahu"), related to me that almost all of the ancient pairs of Tefilin that have been uncovered in archaelogical sites conform to Shitas Rashi (with the exception of one Tefilin Shel Yad which probably is Shitas Rabeinu Tam and a few other pairs that follow another Shitah). Maybe Rabeinu Tam himself wore Rashi Tefilin. Presumably he wore whatever his father, Rabeinu Meir, son-in-law of Rashi, gave him when he was Bar Mitzvah? Perhaps he wore both, but it is very likely that his Mesorah, what his father gave him, was Rashi.

Kol Tuv,

Yonasan Sigler

This is not a Psak Halachah