Parchment scrolls thumb|Man makes boxes for tefillin, Jerusalem, 1964 thumb|Man makes tefillin, Jerusalem, 1949. Photo by Boris Carmi The four biblical passages which refer to the tefillin, mentioned above, are written on scrolls and placed inside the leather boxes. The arm-tefillin has one large compartment, which contains all four biblical passages written upon a single strip of parchment; the head-tefillin has four separate compartments in each of which one scroll of parchment is placed.BT Menachot 34b This is because the verses describe the hand-tefillin in the singular ("sign"), while in three of four verses, the head-tefillin is described in the plural ("totafot").
Parchment scrolls thumb|Man makes boxes for tefillin Jerusalem 1964 thumb|Man makes tefillin Jerusalem 1949 Photo by Boris Carmi The four biblical passages which refer to the tefillin mentioned above are written on scrolls and placed inside the leather boxes The arm-tefillin has one large compartment which contains all four biblical passages written upon a single strip of parchment; the head-tefillin has four separate compartments in each of which one scroll of parchment is placedBT Menachot 34b This is because the verses describe the hand-tefillin in the singular ("sign") while in three of four verses the head-tefillin is described in the plural ("totafot")