In this week's perasha, Avraham Avinu chases after the enemy and wipes out the kings that took Lot captive. When he meets up with the king of Sedom, he tells him, “I don't want to take from a chut/a thread until a shoelace. And no one should say, ‘I made Avraham wealthy.’
God is going to make me wealthy. I'm not going to take from Sedom.” The Gemara says that the in the merit of saying this, Avraham merited the Sisit, which are strings, and the Tefilin, which is a strap, (representing the leather strap of the shoelace). and the Meshech Chochma says that we wear wear Tefilin Shaharit because Avraham was the one that instituted Shaharit.
In the final pasuk of Shir Hashirim, it says Ahot Lanu Ketana, which literally is translated as we have a young sister. But the Gemara says, Ahot Lanu ketana is referring to Avraham Avinu. Why is he called Ahot? Because Ahot comes from the root of the word Me’aheh, which means to sew together.
Avraham Avinu was the one that sewed together the heavens and the earth. After the original sin of Adam HaRishon, the Heavens and Earth split. God’s Shechina left, slowly but surely, and Avraham was the one that reconnected the Heavens and the Earth. And he reconnected them with a thread. The Emek D’var explains that when Avraham went to war against those kings, he did two things: Firstly, with the merit of his Emuna and Bitachon, he brought the heavens back down to earth.
Secondly, he actually ran and chased and did Hishtadlut in his effort against the enemy.
So therefore, he tells the king of Sedom, “I don't want to get any reward for what I did, not for my Emuna and my Bitachon (which is symbolized by the thread that he used to sew together the heavens and the earth) and not for the chasing that I did, (which is symbolized by the strap of the leather).” Avraham was telling the king, “I did it totally selflessly. I don't want to get anything back from you, for whatever I put in, whether it was my faith or was my efforts.”
So, as we said, the Gemara says that because Avraham used that term, “from a thread to a strap,” he received the Sisit strings and the Tefilin. But now we have a deeper understanding. What do Sisit strings do? We look at the Sisit, which has the blue string in it specifically to remind us of the ocean, which reminds us of Heaven, which reminds of God's throne. That thread of Avraham Avinu represents the belief that he connected the Heaven and the Earth, and we see God down here in this world. He didn't want take any physical reward for that, but God gave him a spiritual award, the Mitzvah of sisit, which lasts forever, which we have to this very day. And every time we put our Sisit on, it reminds us of then concept that God is up there in the heavens, but He’s connected down here. That's one lesson. The other lesson is the lesson of the chase: even though Avraham Avinu knew in his heart that everything is from Hashem , he still did Hishtadlut. We do our hishtadlut, and yet we believe that God is in control of that. That is really the message of Tefilin, which is all about Yetziat Mitzrayim, and God's involvement down here in our activities. That's why, in the merit of the chase, Avraham received his Tefilin. For both of the activities that Abraham Avinu did, God gave his children an everlasting memory and commemoration of those important lessons. So when we wear our Sisit and Tefilin, we are really taking away the lessons of Avraham Avinu, when he fought against Sedom. And again, it’s very interesting that it’s part of Shaharit, which Abraham Avinu instituted.
So in Avraham Avinu’s institution of Shaharit, we take away the important lessons of Avraham Avinu in our daily prayers, such as that Avraham Avinu was koveah makom/ he set a place. And all the lessons of Avraham are in our prayers. Zechut Avot, Avraham Tiken Shaharit.
Therefore, those important lessons are there in our daily prayers, as we reconnect to the Avot through our Sisit and our Tefilin. Have a wonderful day a Shabbat Shalom.