Commentary for Berakhot 46:2
ת"ר לא יאחז אדם תפילין בידו וס"ת בזרועו ויתפלל ולא ישתין בהן מים ולא יישן בהן לא שינת קבע ולא שינת עראי. אמר שמואל סכין ומעות וקערה וככר הרי אלו כיוצא בהן.
Our Rabbis have taught : A man should not hold the Tefillin in his hand, or a scroll of the Torah on his arm and say his prayers. He may not urinate while holding them, or sleep with them, neither a regular sleep nor a chance sleep. Samuel said: A knife, money, a dish and a loaf come under the same rule.
Abraham Cohen Footnotes to the English Translation of Masechet Berakhot
The fear lest they will fall might disturb his ability to concentrate his mind on his prayer. Blau, Das altjudische Zauberwesen, p. 150 n. 7, suggests a different reason for the origin of this law. It is an allusion to a superstitious practice whereby these sacred objects were held in the hand as amulets while reciting incantations. Similarly, passages from the New Testament were used as charms by Christians ; see Grenfell and Hunt, Oxyrhyncus Papyri, Part viii.
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