Rabbi Yanai says, "He who wishes to put on the tefillin (phylacteries) must be physically clean and pure as clean as Elisha, the Man of the Wings.

Then the Gemara asks, "Why must he be so clean?"

The answer is, because a man must be free from physical impurities whilst wearing thetefillin.

Raba said, "A man must not sleep with his tefillin on." The Gemara asks further, "Why was Elisha called the Man of Wings?"

The answer is: Once upon a time the king had forbidden the Jews to lay tefillin, and made a decree that if a Jew was seen with tefillin on his head he should have his head crushed. (In olden times they used to wear the tefillin all day long.)

But Elisha paid no attention to the order and continued to wear his tefillin. One day one of the officers appointed to enforce this decree discovered him wearing them.

Elisha ran away, and the officer ran after him. When he caught him, Elisha took off his tefillin and covered them with his hand. Then the officer asked him, "What

have you in your hand?"

And Elisha replied, "Oh, nothing; I have pigeon wings in my hand."

"Show them to me," said the officer.

Elisha opened his hand, and lo! there were the wings of a dove in his hand. This is why he was called the Man of the Wings.

But why did he say he had the wings of a dove in his hand? Why did he not mention another bird, such as the crow or the stork or any other bird?

The answer is, because the Israelites have been compared to the dove. And why so? Because the wings protect her against all things and she uses her wings as a defence in a fight, not her mouth or any other member of her body. So are the Israelites. The commandments which they perform protect the Israelites from all trouble, and the nations cannot do them any harm. Therefore we should keep the commandments and no harm will befall us, as was the case with Elisha. For although the Government had forbidden the wearing of tefillin on pain of death, nevertheless he thought that since God, blessed be He, had given the commandment, he would keep it even if it cost him his life. This is why the miracle happened to him and the Lord rewarded him, so that the tefillin were changed in his hand and Elisha was saved from death.

We must therefore not neglect God even if we are threatened with death.

There is another interpretation. The wings of a dove protect her more than any other bird. For other birds when they get tired in their flight rest upon a rock or a tree, whilst the dove, when she grows tired, rests upon one wing and flies with the other, and then she flies with the first wing and rests on the second. And just as the wings protect the dove, so the commandments protect the children of Israel when they perform them.