February 6, 2011 is Super Bowl Sunday. It is also the day of the Mens Club’s World Wide Wrap — an exciting opportunity to join together as a congregation in demonstrating our love of God via the Mitzvah of Tefillin.

We joke (or cry) here in Metro Detroit about our lowly Lions. Until a year ago, only two teams that were in the NFL when the Super Bowl came into being, had never played in a Super Bowl. Last February, the New Orleans Saints not only played in their first Super Bowl, but they scored an upset victory. What a great emotional celebration that was for the city of New Orleans, just five years after the destructive forces of Hurricane Katrina.

In New Orleans, Super Bowl Sunday generated both a physical victory and a spiritual re-birth. The combination of the physical and spiritual can also happen here in Metro Detroit on this year’s Super Bowl Sunday, regardless of what happens on the football field.

Judaism, and specifically the observance of mitzvot, is generally about action, not feeling.

It is insufficient to have sympathy for the less fortunate; rather it is our duty to provide real and tangible help. On a different note, eating, which is for others just a physical act of survival, is for Jews a meaningful religious encounter with God.

This brings us to the mitzvah of prayer.

In Judaism prayer is not merely words. Prayer is sitting, standing, bowing, taking three steps forward or backward. And prayer involves special clothing. Most of us are familiar and comfortable with a head covering or a tallit.

I hope even more of you will join us at the World Wide Wrap to demonstrate your ongoing practice of wearing tefillin, or even to do so for the first (of hopefully many times) in the comfortable companionship of your B’nai Moshe family.

Of all the ritual garments, Tefillin are unique in that they contain words of Torah. Wearing tefillin is equivalent to wearing the Torah itself on our arms and heads.

Only through the wearing of tefillin can one literally fulfill the commandments found in the Shema of having a sign of God’s presence directly on our bodies — close to our heart and brain, reminding us of God’s gifts of life and intelligence which should inspire us to be better people.

The wearing of tefillin is one of the "time bound positive commandments" for which men are obligated, but women are exempted. What this means is that women are welcome to assume the practice, though not required to do so, and men are expected to wear tefillin every morning during prayer, except for Shabbat and the major Jewish festivals.

If you are ready to begin to practice this mitzvah, or you need a "refresher course," you will always find the availability of spare tefillin, and friendly assistance at our daily morning minyan. However, you might also want to use the upcoming World Wide Wrap on February 6 as an inspiration to purchase your own set of tefillin.

We are fortunate to be able to provide our members with excellent quality tefillin at a very reasonable price of $236. If you put in your paid order no later than January 13, your new tefillin will arrive in time for you to use them with pride at the World Wide Wrap.