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The common practice today regarding tefillin is for them to be worn every ḥol day (give or take ḥol hamo'ed). Meiri on Brachot 14b describes various other practices, including one to which he seemingly gives his approbation:

וקצת חכמים נוהגים להניחם בימים שבין ר"ה ליום הכפורים אחר התשובה והטבילה והוודויין והדבר נכון בעיני

And some sages have the practice to wear them [tefillin] on the days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, after repentence and ritual immersion and confessions, and I agree with this.

Is Meiri saying that it's appropriate to only wear tefillin on the days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur? Do we know whether this was the practice of his community (Perpignan), or neighbouring communities (greater Provence/Languedoc)? Do we know to whom he was referring with "some sages"? The edition of Beit HaBeḥira I have (ed. שמואל דיקמן) has no footnotes for this sentence.

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  • Could he mean that (1) on those days the time to put them on was after doing all the prep, as opposed to just putting them on in the morning like all other days or (2) on those days they would ALSO wear tefilin all day or in the afternoons etc. whereas other days they would only wear them in the morning? This isn't based on information, just trying to parse the quotation you gave.
    – Avraham
    Commented May 4, 2023 at 5:38

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I think you need to bring the full piece . In the full piece he notes the difference between one who just doesn't put on teffilin to those who don't put on for cleanliness of the body and cleanliness of the mind(free from sin) .

That piece which you bring is at the end ,and I do believe that he means that after one says the vidui and teshuva aspects of the day they would then put their teffilin on instead of wearing them right away when one starts to daven(or start their day). Although,before that line he notes those who were very pious only to put on teffilin certain days(Yerushalmi).

I do remember going through Rav Menachem Kasher's teshuva on this topic. He brings such ideas that people did not wear teffilin beacsue of guf naki ,and "neshamah" naki reasons.

From the Gemara in Shevuos 25b it seems clear that wearing Teffilin every day is a mitzvah aseh,and the Meiri isn't disputing that fact. He is just addressing the idea of guf naki which in some cases would prevent one from doing the miztvas aseh. How far guf naki goes is a separate discussion amongst the Rishonim.

Text:

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Text of Shevuos 25b:

מתיב רב המנונא לא אכלתי היום ולא הנחתי תפילין היום משביעך אני ואמר אמן חייב בשלמא לא אכלתי איתיה בלא אוכל אלא לא הנחתי מי איתיה בלא אניח

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  • In the full piece, he notes that not wearing tefillin while saying shema isn't like מעיד עדות שקר when one isn't wearing tefillin for reasons. He then discusses some reasons. I don't think the full context sheds any light on my questions. There's no reason to posit that Meiri disagrees with tefillin as a daily mitzva (and I never suggested this). However, you must agree that there are daily mitzvot that we cannot do right now for various reasons, yet this doesn't mean that they're not daily mitzvot; so too with tefillin: it might be a daily mitzva that we cannot perform for reasons.
    – magicker72
    Commented May 5, 2023 at 17:20
  • You're going to need some source for your I do believe section, and your Although supports me rather than you, as does your description of Rav Kasher's article. Basically: I don't see an answer here. Rav Kasher's article might provide an answer, if you extract the relevant details.
    – magicker72
    Commented May 5, 2023 at 17:22

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