Letter & Spirit: The Story Behind the Photo

Does the above innocuous photograph of a boy wearing Tefilin look familiar to you? If not, try covering up the photo below the pencil line drawn across it… how about now? The upper portion of this photo, depicting the proper placement of the Tefilin Shel Rosh, appears in the back of almost every old print of Siddur Tehilas Hashem, as well as several other Lubavitch publications.

The boy in the photograph is Chaim Aharon Kuperman, who passed away last Friday at the age of 85. The line marking where to crop the photo was drawn by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, then known as the Ramash.

In the late 1940s, young Chaim accompanied  the Ramash and Rabbi Nissan Mindel to a photography studio to take the picture, which was to be included in a book the Ramash was working on publishing – a Shulchan Aruch for children titled ‘Junior Code of Law.’

Rabbi Sholom Ber Shapiro, director of Nissan Mindel Publications, made these documents available to our readers as part of our weekly Letter & Spirit feature.  He writes:

The Ramash, as the Rebbe was known before the nessius, went with Rabbi Kuperman to take the photo. The purpose of this photo was to show the exact way of wearing the head tefillin and to use it, along with a photo of the hand tefillin – taken of Rabbi Nissan Mindel’s arm at that same time, in the Chabad publications in the early years: the Siddur, The Junior Code of Law and the Tefillin booklet.

When this photo was inserted in the original draft of the Junior Code of Law, prepared by Rabbi Mindel, the Rebbe made many very detailed notations and comments on this draft, among them the photo we are presenting here with the exact line which the Rebbe drew to show where the photo should end (for use in these publications).

We are also sharing another couple of pages from this original draft of The Jr. Code of Law – showing the Rebbe’s careful notations – including lists of sources, which testify to the great importance which the Rebbe attached to  publications for the young (a number of which came out in the early years, at that time). The first printing of the Junior Code of Law/Shulchan Aruch by Nissan Mindel Publications was in 5768 (2008), with a second, more comprehensive printing anticipated iy”h in the future.

It is noteworthy that the Rebbe gave clear instructions that these photos, of the tefillin of the head and of the hand, should be included in every printing of the Tehillas Hashem Siddur, along with the page of The Course of Tradition and the page listing the officers and activities of Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch. These pages, the Rebbe instructed, should be found in the back of the Tehillas Hashem Siddur.

Click on images to enlarge