The Soldier Who Was Sent Home • Parshas Shoftim • Ep. 447

Why does the Torah send a soldier home from the front line — not for cowardice, but for having spoken between his tefillin shel yad and his tefillin shel rosh? Of every aveirah in the Torah, why is that the one that disqualifies him? This week we bring the Tolner Rebbe's approach: the arm-tefillin is a man's own strength, the head-tefillin is his awareness of Who gives him that strength, and the whole avodah is refusing to let the two come apart. A soldier who has already severed them is right to be afraid. And we are all going out to some battle every day.