Thousands of Jews are innocently remiss in the mitzvah of donning tefillin daily. This sounds shocking!
In light of the significance of the volatile issue, Yated Ne'eman has for years been monitoring what goes on in the manufacture and marketing of tefillin straps, when time after time, shocking details have been exposed to the public of the sale of invalid tefillin straps by scoundrels. It began by the exposure some time ago of a leather manufacturing company in central Israel whose owners decided to develop a lucrative side line and began selling tefillin straps without any stage of the process being made lesheim mitzvas tefillin. The revelation of this enterprise brought about the end of this line.
We checked the subject after some time and again discovered severe problems. The central cause in this imitation and forgery stems from the fact that a leather production industry is almost nonexistent in Israel, a direct result of there being an open market. This policy brought about the total decline of local manufacturing since leather curing is not economically worthwhile in Israel. It can be done much cheaper elsewhere. Even those who did work in the field up to several years ago using local skins, prefer today to import raw leather from abroad for the simple reason that it is significantly cheaper than the local product.
It is noteworthy that in the manufacture of tefillin straps, it is not enough that it be done professionally, but it must also be done for the sake of the mitzvah itself. Without this lishmah - the straps are worthless for tefillin. The lishmah in the process may begin in the stage that the skins are cured and, while this is not compulsory, it is the preferred hiddur. After this stage, however, the lack of proper intent invalidates the tefillin straps. This process involves the curing with lime up till the final stage of painting and cutting the straps.
The one behind this deceit was A.A. whose name will be publicized in a succeeding article. It was clarified indisputably that in addition to misleading the public in selling machine-made retzuos as more expensive handmade ones, these were completely posul since from beginning to end, no proper kavana was coupled with the manufacture. It came to light then that together with him, another person served as the so-called `mashgiach' but really collaborated with A.
Reliable information was received recently that the market is again being flooded with non-kosher tefillin straps. The suspicion arose after it was discovered that the straps being sold as handmade and mehudar were made from split or bonded leather. These retzuos, made from inferior leather to begin with, were given a special finish. As with all bonded leather, they were made of two layers, one of made of low quality leather scraps that were ground and glued together to make a leather-like material (called spalt in Hebrew), and a separate layer of synthetic material bonded to the first by glue or heat. According to all opinions this is halachically unacceptable - posul - for tefillin straps, as attested to by rabbonim experts in the field of STaM.
We launched an investigation in stores selling tefillin straps and took those straps which seemed questionable for examination. We found that they were marketed by A. A. In spite of the fact that from the initial examination we already verified that these were not genuine, we preferred to make an official analysis in the Branch of Paper and Leather Manufacture in the government Institute of Standards. In the paragraph of "description of the product" it stated: "A packaged product contained tefillin straps with the official plumba-stamp of Klein: nature of the examination: identification of the substance makeup of the straps: genuine leather or substitute according to the international specification standards."
When the test was completed, we received a laboratory document verifying our suspicions. We wish to note that anyone can make this test on their own using an organic solvent which can be bought at any paint store. The document stated: "The sample was taken from a closed package of straps. It was separated into two layers by immersion in an organic solvent. The test showed: the under layer was made from bonded leather (split) of a 1.3 mm. thickness. The upper layer was made from a synthetic material of .4 mm. thickness. It was not possible to determine exactly how these two layers were bonded: either by glue or heat pressure."
In the wake of these serious findings, we approached HaRav Moshe Shaul Klein based on the fact that some of the packages in the stores had the label "Retzuos Mehadrin" - handmade mehudar tefillin straps under the supervision of HaRav M.S. Klein." At the beginning of the conversation, it became clear that the deception and dishonesty were very severe and there was no need to investigate the matter more deeply regarding the two layers, since all straps made under his supervision are made only from complete genuine leather and not bonded leather. It was verified beyond doubt that these fake ones were, indeed, marketed by A., as the shopkeepers told us very innocently.
It was clear that these retzuos were not really manufactured by the Retzuos Mehadrin factory nor were they under the supervision of HaRav Moshe Klein, despite labeling indicating this to be the case. (See the letters of HaRav Klein, and the Retzuos Mehadrin factory, protesting the forgery of their names.)
However in addition, there were other retzuos that were marketed under a separate name, Retzuos Malchus, and under a different rabbinical supervision, that of HaRav Yaakov Yitzchok Klein. There are retzuos labeled as machine-made that are said to be of pure leather. There are other (more expensive) retzuos labeled as hand made with no indication of the type of leather used. Both of the samples that we investigated were made from the posul bonded leather.
We discussed our findings with HaRav Klein, and he at first claimed that all retzuos under his supervision are made in the Ukraine of genuine leather. After we showed him the evidence we had amassed, he had no satisfactory answers.
