Traditional Jewish prayer box prompts bomb scare Northwest Indiana Commuter train

[Ian David]

Posted 11/16/2007

A Jewish passenger on a South Shore commuter train prompted a bomb scare on Wednesday when the traditional prayer box worn on his forehead was mistaken for an explosive device.

Bob Byrd, chief of the Northwest Indiana Commuter Transportation District’s Transit Police, told the Chesterton Tribune today that the incident began as Train 108 left the East Chicago station en route for Chicago. Several passengers sitting near the man became suspicious after observing what looked to them like a miner’s hat with a box in place of a lamp and wires sticking out of it.

<snip>

The collector then alerted the conductor, who made contact with the man. The man advised the conductor that he was praying and then declined to answer any more questions.

Possibly contributing to the confusion, Byrd said, was another passenger, apparently of Middle Eastern descent and wearing a turban, sitting in the next row. “For the people in that car the totality of this was too much for them to handle.”

<snip>

“In New York City,” Byrd added, “nobody would have looked twice at the gentleman. Here we appreciate the passengers’ response.”


More:
http://www.chestertontribune.com/Northwest%20Indiana/11164%20traditional_jewish_prayer_box_pr.htm

See also:

Tefillin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tefillin, (Hebrew: תפילין), also called phylacteries, are two black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with biblical verses. The arm-tefillin, or shel yad, is worn on the upper arm, while the head-tefillin, or shel rosh, is placed above the forehead. They serve as a "sign" and "remembrance" that God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt. According to Jewish Law, they should be worn during weekday morning prayer services.

The sources provided for tefillin in the Torah are from vague verses. The following verse from the shema states:

"And you shall bind them as a sign upon your arm, and they shall be as totafot between your eyes" <1>

The verse does not designate what one is obliged to "bind upon your arm” nor is a description given as to what totafot means. It is only by way of the Oral tradition that tefillin exist as we know nowadays.


A set of tefillin includes the arm-tefillin (left) and the head-tefillin

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tefillin

And:


http://www.hasofer.com/html/tefillinposition.html



http://www.waupun.k12.wi.us/Policy/other/dickhut/religions/14%20Jewish%20Symbols.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. The editorial in today's Phili inquirer

discusses the decline of the USA, and mentions the lack of education, news and discussion of important issues. We are becoming a nation of dunces. Proof positive indeed.

[HereSince1628]

2. 'Here we appreciate the passengers’ response' . . . ehh?

That is in interesting contrast to the statements of my teachers in the 1950's and 60's whole frequently told me to appreciate that I lived in a country unlike the USSR, because here neighbors weren't encouraged to spy on neighbors.

I feel more and more like I grew up in Camelot and its never fulfilled dream existed for much less than a life-time.