The Lord commanded Israel to take his words and bind them on their hands and between their eyes. The Jewish interpretation was to copy the Lord's word on small scrolls and place the scrolls in leather cases. They wore the cases on their foreheads and arms when they prayed. These leather cases were called phylacteries. The Lord also commanded Israel to put a fringe on the border of their garment as a reminder to keep the commandments. On this fringe, they were to put a blue ribbon, the color being symbolic of heaven, to remind them of the source of their commandments. By making their fringes longer and their phylacteries is bigger, the Pharisees wanted to show that they were more righteous than others. This show of self-righteousness was condemned by the Lord.