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.