Tefillin That Paved the Way to Blessing

A few years ago, Rabbi Eliezer Yutkovsky was living in Bnei Brak. One day, he needed work done on his building's roof, so he hired a tar worker. As the man worked, Rabbi Yutkovsky struck up a friendly conversation with him and gently asked, “Did you happen to put on tefillin today?”

Tefillin are the black leather boxes with Torah verses inside that Jewish men wear on their head and arm during weekday morning prayers. It’s a special mitzvah—a commandment from the Torah—that helps connect our thoughts, feelings, and actions to Hashem (God).

The worker smiled and admitted, “Not yet.”

“Well,” said Rabbi Yutkovsky with a grin, “you’re working for me by the hour—what do you care? Here, take my tefillin, go over to the Itzkowitz synagogue right here, say Shema, and come right back.”

The man agreed. He took the tefillin and headed off toward the shul.

Ten minutes passed. Then thirty. Still no sign of him.

“At first I figured maybe he got inspired and decided to finish the whole davening (prayer service),” Rabbi Yutkovsky recalled. “But when an hour and a half went by and he still hadn’t come back, I started to worry. After two hours, I thought, ‘That’s it—I need to order new tefillin.’”

Then, after two and a half hours, the man returned. And he was glowing.

“I asked him what happened,” Rabbi Yutkovsky said, “and he told me something that gave me chills.”

The worker explained: “I put on the tefillin and said Shema. I finished, packed them up, and was about to leave the shul. Just as I was walking out, a man stopped me and said, ‘Hey, judging by your clothes, are you a tar worker?’ I said I was. He said, ‘I live nearby. Can you come give me a quote for my roof?’”

The man took him to a large building with a 700-square-meter roof. The worker gave a quote—and the owner immediately agreed.

“But that wasn’t the end,” the worker continued. “As I came down, another man approached me asking for a quote. Then another. In just under two hours, I ended up closing three roof jobs, all right here in Bnei Brak. Each one will bring in a nice profit. All this—just from putting on tefillin once. I’ve decided, starting tomorrow, I’m going to put on tefillin every day!”

Rabbi Yutkovsky smiled warmly but added a word of wisdom. “That’s wonderful,” he told him. “But know this—it’s not always like that. When a child comes back home after being away for years, his father runs to embrace him, full of joy. But the next day? That’s when the test begins. Hashem will want to know—did you return because of love, or just for the roof jobs?”

It was a powerful reminder that while Hashem does shower us with kindness, the deeper purpose of a mitzvah is connection—not reward. And when someone takes even one step back toward Hashem, it can open unbelievable doors.

Sometimes, it starts with just one question: “Did you put on tefillin today?”