Drawing Down - The Knot Of the Tefillin

(Picture courtesy of stam.net)

Received via e-mail from Rabbi Dovid Sears:

A Vort related by Leibel Estrin in Honor of the Bris of Aron Raphael ben Nechama Rivka (Estrin) Hershkowitz

Daily we say in davening right after Borchu, the blessing: "Yotzer ohr u'vorei choshekh, oseh shalom u'voreh es ha-kol."

It is customary to touch the tefillin shel yad at "yotzer ohr," and the tefillin shel rosh at "u'vorei choshekh" -- perhaps to indicate that the One Above creates worlds that are both revealed ("ohr," light) and hidden ("choshekh," darkness).

Perhaps we should also touch the knot of the tefilin when we say "oseh shalom," since the knot of the tefillin connects the tefillin shel rosh (corresponding to the hidden world) to "u'vorei es ha-kol" - the straps that go below the organ (yesod) to the knees (netzach and hod).

According to Breslov Chassidus, the knot of the tefillin is called "Moshiach," possibly for the reason above: that it and Moshiach connect and draw down what is above us.

Maybe this explains why when Moshe wanted to see Hashem, he was shown the knot of tefillin: he was shown Moshiach, who will soon reveal and draw down the one Above into this world.

(We might go further and say that these four expressions represent the four letters of Hashem's name and the four worlds of A-B-Y-A: Emanation, Creation, Formation, and Action. Moshiach is the vav, which is used to both join and draw down; as we say "Elokei Avrohom, Elokei Yitzchak, V'Elokei Yaakov..." -- the letter vav being associated with Yaakov, and serving as the channel between upper and lower realms.)