It is a Divinely-mandated rehearsal each morning to unify our intellect, spirit, and motivation to be at one with the Divine during the coming day.

I spend most of my time in the secular world. I’ve read the classics, my columns are internationally syndicated, and I consult with Fortune 500 corporations.

Hoo-hah.

I consider my greatest distinction that every morning I wrap a pair of leather boxes containing sacred texts – one on my upper arm, one above my hairline – and I offer some prayers.

Praying on its own may seem irrational for one whose day is absorbed in the mundane. But the boxes, known as Tefillin, seem beyond absurdity, the stuff of which Hollywood faux-Kabbalah is made. In a word, to the cynic or even hyper-intellectual secularist, Tefillin can appear to be just so much hocus-pocus.

Many Jews, even the worldliest ones, see the distinction between human and beast in the human capacity to understand wisdom as an amalgam of the intellect, spirit, and motivation to action. Donning Tefillin is not simply a “prayer aid” or ancient symbol. To the contrary, it is a first-thing-in-the-morning underpinning of the rest of my day, that makes it purposeful and directed toward creativity.

Does donning Tefillin stimulate the intellect? The Biblical passages they contain are in themselves rich textual source material. But, the entire act poses an inescapable confrontation with our most intellectually vexing questions: How does finite man grasp infinity? How did the world come into being? Is Creation random or purposeful?

Does donning Tefillin prod spirituality? This seems like a no-brainer. But, as my cardiologist used to day, “The case is not so easy.” How does the small and tangible connect us to the infinite and incorporeal? And yet, in some nearly incomprehensible, mystical manner, it’s true. The essence of our faith is the myriad ways that the finite and the Infinite intertwine. Each Mitzvah we perform is preceded by the celebratory words, “I am doing this mitzvah for the sake of uniting the infinite Holy One with His finite manifestation on earth.

Spiritually, the Tefillin are a nexus of the Jewish past, present, and future. They are imploded mystically with the Exodus, the revelation at Mount Sinai, and all the pain and glory until the End of Days in which all of the world’s tumult will be reconciled in the coming of Moshiach.

Is donning Tefillin a call to action? In their boxes and winding, they convey an energy that strengthens the weaker of our arms. They bend our longest finger in servitude of our hands to G-d. They dwell opposite our heart and passion. They rest before our brain, the epicenter of our intellect. They bind the nexus of head and spine, the very spot where thoughts and passions convert into action.

I wish I could attain that oneness every day that I wrap my arm and forehead in Tefillin. Sometimes, I confess, it is more of a mechanical exercise. It’s good to keep in shape, regardless.

This, I know: On the days that I do don my Tefillin with meaning and thoughtfulness, the time I spend at my work, with my family, with my study of Torah, with my recreation, with my G-d, with my friends, is all the more delicious. G-d is not a landlord who comes around to collect the rent but an intimate friend, and life doesn’t get any better.