Tefillin Straps: The Basics

When you buy tefillin online from a decent tefillin seller, normally you have several options to select: Ashkenazi or Sephardic or Chabad, right-handed or left-handed, sometimes the level of hiddur of the writing on the parchments and various qualities of tefillin straps.

The tefillin strap selection is typically shpalt or elyon for basic tefillin and elyon or avodat yad for tefillin gassot.

We recently received the following inquiry regarding tefillin gassot:

I am looking at the Tefillin Gassot, and I really do not know what Mehudar 1, Mehudar 2 and Mehudar 3 stand for. And why is Avodat Yad more prized than Elyon for the straps?

The words "avodat yad" mean handmade, but really all tefillin straps are handmade because the halacha requires that they be made with the holiness of tefillin (לשם קדושת תפילין) in mind. The question is whether the tefillin maker can has to actually use his hands, or whether operating a machine with intention is sufficient.

Less expensive tefillin straps (shpalt and elyon) are made with the aid of machines, while more expensive straps are made without machine power.

The process of making the avodat yad tefillin straps is entirely human-powered from start to finish, whereas certain parts of of the production process for shpalt and elyon straps is powered by machines, such as the turning of the tanning tank or spraying the paint on the tefillin straps with a compressor.