It might be lame (if you were hoping for something more colorful or more shallow) but that was my purim costume. Elisha Ba'al Knafayim.from Talmud Bavli Masechet Shabbath:
דף מט,א גמרא א"ר ינאי תפילין צריכין גוף נקי כאלישע בעל כנפים מאי היא אביי אמר שלא יפיח בהן רבא אמר שלא יישן בהן ואמאי קרי ליה בעל כנפים שפעם אחת גזרה מלכות רומי הרשעה גזירה על ישראל שכל המניח תפילין ינקרו את מוחו והיה אלישע מניחם ויוצא לשוק ראהו קסדור אחד רץ מפניו ורץ אחריו וכיון שהגיע אצלו נטלן מראשו ואחזן בידו אמר לו מה זה בידך אמר לו כנפי יונה פשט את ידו ונמצאו כנפי יונה לפיכך קורין אותו אלישע בעל כנפים ומאי שנא כנפי יונה משאר עופות משום דאמתיל כנסת ישראל ליונה שנאמר (תהילים סח) כנפי יונה נחפה בכסף וגו' מה יונה כנפיה מגינות עליה אף ישראל מצות מגינות עליהןtranslation from Come and Hear:
"GEMARA. R. Jannai said: Tefillin demand a pure body, like Elisha, the man of wings. What does this mean? — Abaye said: That one must not pass wind while wearing them; Raba said: That one must not sleep in them. And why is he called the man of wings'? Because the wicked Roman government once proclaimed a decree against Israel that whoever donned tefillin should have his brains pierced through; yet Elisha put them on and went out into the streets. [When] a quaestor saw him, he fled before him, whereupon he gave pursuit. As he overtook him he [Elisha] removed them from his head and held them in his hand. 'What is that in your hand?' he demanded. 'The wings of a dove,' was his reply. He stretched out his hand and lo! they were the wings of a dove. Therefore he is called 'Elisha the man of the wings'. And why the wings of a dove rather than that of other birds? Because the Congregation of Israel is likened to a dove, as it is said, as the wings of a dove covered with silver: just as a dove is protected by its wings, so is Israel protected by the precepts."I found leather straps, feathers and fimo (clay) in an art supply store about an hour before purim started. It took like 5-6 minutes to fashion the tefillin from black fimo, and about as long to stick the feathers into a semi-convincing fimo dove's wing. It's one of those intellectually cool costumes that requires a long explanation every time, but it was a such a payoff when anyone actually figured it out for themselves :) Almost everyone thought the tefillin were real despite them being cartoony and ill-formed.
Of minor note: I also schlepped a shuk hand-cart around with me all day (which turned out to be convenient for mishloach manot) because the gemara said Elisha 'went out in the shuk' wearing his tefillin. (I also only made tefillin shel rosh because the story only mentions them.)
As I told some people, if I had had more Purim chutzpah I would have put Parshiot in the Tefillin with the passukim that God wears in his tefillin, according to the Talmud. [Berachot 6a][In english]
Comments
