Posted to Chabad News, Jewish News on
Photo: Shturem.net

Shliach Discovers His Tefillin Straps Are Plastic

Rabbi Avrohom Yitzchok Prudenshedsky, a Chabad Shliach in the Israeli Moshav of Ganei Yochanan, could not believe his eyes: after mistakenly leaving his Tefillin in the sunlight for two hours, he discovered that the straps were not made of leather – as required by Halachah – but of cheap plastic.

“I purchased these Tefilin from a Chabad Sofer who is honest and trustworthy,” the Shliach told Israeli Chabad news website Shturem.net, “but it appears that the Sofer himself was hoodwinked by a crooked supplier, and he immediately agreed to replace the faulty straps.”

The Shliach asked the website to publicize the story and warn others of the high prevalence of fraud and non-kosher fakes in the market for Tefillin, Mezuzos, and other items of Judaica.

Photos courtesy of Shturem.net

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13 Comments

  • Ch resident

    Sounds like the story with the chickens in Monsey NY for those that may remember .. Sad that observant Jews lower themselves for a few dollars and cause others not to let for the mitzvah properly or to eat kosher food .. I guess the mighty dollar talks for some .. Sad very sad .. May the new year bring only good for all Jews regardless of practice and affiliation in the best of health happiness and joy .. BTW proud to read Sofer took the bull by the horns so to say to replace straps ..

  • Milhouse

    The claim that these retzuos are not made of leather is false. They are made of kosher leather, and painted black as required by halacha lemoshe misinai. The only problem is that the paint is of a sort that hardens into a strip that can be peeled off. Whether this makes the retzuoh possul is NOT CLEAR. The question was widely publicized three years ago. Many rabbonim have forbidden this paint, either lechatchilo or even bediovad, but other equally authoritative rabbonim have permitted it. See, for instance, http://www.stamforum.com/2012/08/scandal-what-scandal.html

    • Eli Gutnick

      Reb Millhouse, the problem of the peeling retzuos which you quoted from http://www.stamforum.com and which hit the headlines a few years ago is completely different to this latest scandal which involves a much thicker synthetic/plastic layer. This layer is heat-pressed on to cheap “shpalt” leather making it look like high quality “or elyon” leather. This is possul according to all poskim because unlike the problem you refer to it is not an issue of the paint only but rather a good part of the actual retzuah itself being synthetic. Furthermore this latest scandal appears to be outright fraud including forged hechsheirim whereas the issue of the peeling paint was not deliberate fraud and was merely a flaw in the manufacturing / painting process.

    • Milhouse

      I stand corrected. From the consumer’s point of view the two issues look the same, but evidently they are not.

  • Uziyohu Brown - Sofer STAM

    Whilst agreeing with no 2…I wish to add that only retzuous under the Hashgocho of Rav Landau should be purchased as these are without doubt Kosher and are not manufactured the same way as the questionable retzuous. Unfortunately these are considerable more expensive than the others but their Kashrus is beyond doubt

  • Yeah Millhouse - they're plastic

    The cloth reinforced backing’s evenly spaced frayed threads are clearly visible in the 2nd and 3rd pictures below the article’s text. Take it from me, I work with material every day.

    • Milhouse

      I stand corrected. There should not be any cloth involved in the manufacture of retzuos, just leather and paint. The issue that arose three years ago, although it had the same symptoms, was evidently different.

    • K

      http://www.chareidi.org/archives5775/mattos/atefillinmts75.htm

      This is old news in the world of Yeshivish people. I am surprized you guys aren’t up to speed on it.

      Read ENTIRE article, because there are a few scams out there.

      In relation to retzuos malchus:

      retzuos that were marketed under a separate name, Retzuos Malchus, and under a different rabbinical supervision, that of HaRav Yaakov Yitzchok Klein. There are retzuos labeled as machine-made that are said to be of pure leather. There are other (more expensive) retzuos labeled as hand made with no indication of the type of leather used. Both of the samples that we investigated were made from the posul bonded leather.

  • dov

    Rabbi yossi Altain from president st also makes a very mehuder retzua from shlil or dakos. They are more expensive than ghe regular ones, but I guess you get what you pay for.

  • shlomo

    so characteristically. so genuine. only chabadnik can live tfilin 3hr in a sun(((( btw what about klav inside?, doubdt that it stay kosher