Rab once washed his hands and recited the Shema' and put on tefillin and said the tefillah. But how could he act in this way, seeing that it has been taught: "One who digs a niche in a grave for a corpse is exempt from reciting Shema and tefillah and from tefillin and from all the commandments prescribed in the Torah. When the hour for reciting the Shema arrives, he goes up and washes his hands and puts on tefillin and recites the Shema and says the tefillah"?

Now this statement itself contains a contradiction. First it says that he is exempt and then it says that he is under obligation? — This is no difficulty; the latter clause speaks of where there are two, the former of where there is only one. In any case this seems to contradict Rab? — Rab held with R. Joshua b. Korhah, who said that first he accepts the yoke of the kingdom of heaven and then he accepts the yoke of the commandments.  I will grant you that R. Joshua b. Korhah meant that the recital [of one section] should precede that of the other. But can you understand him to mean that the recital should precede the act [of putting on the tefillin]? And further, did Rab really adopt the view of R. Joshua b. Korhah? Did not R. Hiyya b. Ashi say: On many occasions I stood before Rab when he rose early and said a blessing and taught us our section and put on phylacteries and then recited the Shema?  And should you say, he did this only when the hour for reciting the Shema had not yet arrived — if that is so what is the value of the testimony of R. Hiyya b. Ashi? — To refute the one who says that a blessing need not be said for the study of the Mishnah; he teaches us that for the Mishnah also a blessing must be said. All the same there is a contradiction of Rab?  — His messenger was at fault.

Ulla said: If one recites the Shema without tefillin it is as if he bore false witness against himself. R. Hiyya b. Abba said in the name of R. Johanan: It is as if he offered a burnt-offering without a meal-offering and a sacrifice without drink-offering.

R. Johanan also said: If one desires to accept upon himself the yoke of the kingdom of heaven in the most complete manner, he should consult nature and wash his hands and put on tefillin and recite the Shema and say the tefillah: this is the complete acknowledgment of the kingdom of heaven. R. Hiyya b. Abba said in the name of R. Johanan: If one consults nature and washes his hands and puts on tefillin and recites the Shema and says the tefillah, Scripture accounts it to him as if he had built an altar and offered a sacrifice upon it, as it is written, I will wash my hands in innocency and I will compass Thine altar, O Lord.  Said Raba to him: Does not your honor think that it is as if he had bathed himself, since it is written, I will wash in purity and it is not written, "I will wash my hands."