The famous passage of Shema found in Parshat Va’etchanan includes the following verse:

And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for totafot between your eyes.1

While it is well known that this verse refers to the tefillin bound on the arm and forehead, the question remains: Why are they described in such cryptic terms, and what, in fact, does the word totafot actually mean?

1. “Two Plus Two” in Foreign Languages

Rashi2 quotes the Talmud where Rabbi Akiva explains that the word totafot (טֹטָפֹת) denotes the four compartments found in the head tefillin. Tat (טַט) in Coptic means “two.” Similarly, path (פַּת) in Afriki also means “two.” Thus, taken together, we have four, which teaches us that there are four compartments to the head tefillin.

According to this interpretation, the Torah specifically used this word to highlight the number four. Unlike the word “ot” (אות, “sign”), which the verse used for the arm-tefillin and which is singular, totafot is grammatically plural. Rabbi Akiva’s etymology explains why totafot implies not just two (as a plural might minimally indicate) but four compartments in total.3

2. Just Do The Math (and Ignore the Meaning)

The same section of the Talmud cites Rabbi Yishmael’s opinion. He understands—a little cryptically—that we can infer its meaning from the other places4 the word is mentioned in the Bible. He notes that in two places the word is written without a vav (טטפת) and once with a vav (טוטפות), hinting at pluralization. Tallying up these appearances, he concludes that totafot alludes to the number four (two singular mentions and one plural mention 1+1+2=4), hinting at the fact that the head-tefillin must contain four separate compartments.5 He does not, however, explain what the word actually means.

3. A Forehead Ornament or Crown

Another explanation is based on the usage of a similar term in Rabbinic literature to mean an ornamental headband. The Mishnah mentions a “totefet” that women would wear on the forehead (extending ear to ear) as a piece of jewelry.6 Nachmanides embraces this approach in his commentary. He notes that totafot has “no known affinity” in Hebrew, and after rejecting a different etymology (see below regarding speech), he writes: “Our Rabbis, however, have called an object which lies upon the head totafot, just as they said: ‘A woman may not go out [on Shabbat] with a totafot … Rabbi Abahu said: What is totephet? It is a forehead band from ear to ear.’ Now it is the rabbis …who spoke the language and knew it, and from them we should accept the explanation of totafot.”7

4. “Totafot” Connoting Speech

An alternative explanation connects totafot to a root meaning speech or utterance. This view was recorded by the 10th-century philologist Menachem ibn Saruk and is brought by Rashi in his commentary on Exodus 13:16. He associates totafot with the Biblical Hebrew verb “הטיף” (hatif), meaning “to drip words,” figuratively speaking. For example, the prophet Ezekiel is told “vehateif el darom” – “speak (prophecy) to the south,”8 and Micah says, “al tatifu” – “do not preach.”9 These uses of טיף/הטיף refer to speech pouring forth.

On this basis, totafot would imply conversation starters. Rashi explains that they are named totafot because “whoever sees them tied between the eyes will remember the miracle [of the Exodus] and speak about it.”10

5. A Numerical Hint

The Ba’al HaTurim points out that the phrase “uletotafot bein einecha” (“for totafot between your eyes”) has the same numeric value as the phrase “eleh arbaa batim” (“these are four compartments [of the head tefillin]”).11

6. Reclaiming “Totafot” as Holy Tongue

According to Rabbi Akiva’s explanation, we must understand why the Torah uses foreign words (Coptic, Phrygian) to form “totafot.” Could the Torah not use a native Hebrew term for this mitzvah? The Tzemach Tzedek, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, cites Shelah, who cautions against interpreting this to mean that the Torah uses words originating in non-Hebrew languages. Rather, he explains, all languages ultimately stem from Lashon Hakodesh, the Holy Tongue.

“When G‑d created the world,” he writes, “there was only the Holy Tongue,” as Rashi attests in multiple places. It was only later, at the Tower of Babel, that G‑d confounded human speech and introduced linguistic diversity. At that point, G‑d interwove fragments of the Holy Tongue into the newly formed languages of the nations. Thus, even the Greek, Caspian, and African terms cited by Rabbi Akiva contain original Hebrew words that became embedded in other tongues.

From this perspective, tat and path—though identified with other languages—are in fact remnants of the Holy Tongue, repatriated into the Torah. Far from borrowing from the nations, the Torah is reclaiming its own dispersed language. By including such words, the Torah signals that even the languages of the nations contain holy sparks.12

Yet, perhaps the use of words that were preserved in foreign languages was intentional, as the head-tefillin is a signal to the nations of the world—as Rabbi Eliezer the Great interprets the verse, “Then all the peoples of the earth will see that the name of the L-rd is called upon you,”13 as a reference to the head tefillin,14 which broadcasts to all that the name of G‑d is literally worn on our bodies.