3. The Boxes

The scrolls are inserted into boxes made of leather that has been painstakingly pressed into the tefillin's perfectly smooth planes and precise geometrical shape, and painted black.

The upper part of the tefillin box is a perfect cube; the lower part is a flatter box that is wider than the upper part. On one side, the lower part extends further than the other sides and has a slit through which the tefillin strap is threaded.

The hand tefillin has one large compartment, in which a single scroll inscribed with the four portions is inserted. The head tefillin has four compartments, for its four scrolls, and has a raised Hebrew letter shin on each side.