Tefillin, (Hebrew: תפילין‎), also called phylacteries, are a pair of black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Bible. The hand-tefillin, or shel yad, is worn by Jews wrapped around the arm, hand and fingers, while the head-tefillin, or shel rosh, is placed above the forehead. They serve as a "sign" and "remembrance" that God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and serve several purposes in the fulfillment of the scriptural commandments prescribing them to be worn by Jews.

Tefillin are cubic worked leather boxes painted black with leather straps, dyed black on one side, that Jews wear on their head and their upper arm during weekday morning prayers. This tradition has been active for thousands of years. Observant Jews consider wearing tefillin to be a very great mitzvah (command).

The source texts for tefillin in the Torah are obscure in literal meaning. For example, the following verse from the shema states: "And you shall bind them as a sign upon your arm, and they shall be as totafot between your eyes." The verse does not designate what specifically to “bind upon your arm,” and the definition of totafot is not obvious—the only other appearances of this word are in identical contexts (Ex.13:16 & Deut. 11:18).

But the authoritative oral tradition (Oral Torah) explains that it is these scriptural passages themselves (including the shema) that are to be bound to the body in the form of tefillin. It is thus the Oral Torah that provides the details of the construction and application of tefillin.

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