Talmud Bavli
Talmud Bavli

Responsa for Sukkah 51:2

תניא א"ר חנניא בן עקביא כותבי ספרים תפילין ומזוזות הן ותגריהן ותגריהן וכל העוסקין במלאכת שמים לאתויי מוכרי תכלת פטורין מק"ש ומן התפלה ומן התפילין ומכל מצות האמורות בתורה לקיים דברי ר' יוסי הגלילי שהיה רבי יוסי הגלילי אומר העוסק במצוה פטור מן המצוה

It has been taught: R. Hanania b. Akavya said: Scribes writing [Torah] scrolls, tefillin and mezuzot, their agents and their agents’ agents, and all who are engaged in holy work including sellers of blue [for tzitzit] are exempt from the obligation of prayer and tefillin and all the commandments mentioned in the Torah, to confirm the words of R. Yose the Galilean, for R. Yose the Galilean used to say: He who is occupied with the performance of a mitzvah is [at that time] exempt from other mitzvot

Shut min haShamayim

I also asked [in my dream] regarding the commandment of tefillin. We have learned1see Mechilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 13:9:7: "One who wears tefillin is like one who reads from the Torah, and one who reads from the Torah is exempt from wearing tefillin." We are unsure about the meaning of this phrase. Does it mean that one is truly exempt from wearing tefillin if one reads from the Torah, or studies even a single halacha or a single verse? For most people regularly read a halacha or a biblical verse. Or does it mean that at the actual moment that one is reading from the Torah, one is then exempt from putting on tefillin, because of the principle that someone engaged in one commandment is exempt from another2cf. Sukkah 26a:2 . Tosafot on Sukkah 10b:5 makes the precision that only if the fulfilment of one commandment would lead to the annulment of another is this principle applied? Moreover, I was unsure regarding those who claim that wearing tefillin requires a cleanliness of the body comparable to Elisha (Shabbat 49a:6), and therefore exempt themselves on this ground. Yet perhaps all that is required is not to flatulate or to sleep while wearing them3This is the opinion in Teshuvot Maharam 649 and of Rabbeinu Tam cited in Tosafot on Rosh Hashanah 17a:10. See also Siman 26 above.. We were also unsure regarding what was taught (Rosh Hashanah 17a:10): "Sinners of Israel who sin with their bodies - these are those skulls that do not don tefillin," which was interpreted by the commentators to refer to those who never wear tefillin at all. I asked about this [in my dream], whether it was as they claimed, that if one wore tefillin even once a week they would not be considered a sinner; or whether it is as is written in the literature, that the term applies to anyone who could be wearing them and isn't4See Rabbeinu Tam, ibid.. I asked all these questions together.
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