Rotem Cohen Shares the Incredible Story That Led Him Back to Tefillin

Israeli singer Rotem Cohen recently shared that he is a man of faith. Now, he has revealed the extraordinary story behind the decision that led him to begin putting on tefillin as a teenager.

"I remember that after my bar mitzvah, I stopped putting on tefillin," Cohen recalled. "You know when there's something that just stays with you all the time? That's how it was for me. It was like I had a weight sitting on my heart. I didn't know how to approach it. I kept wondering whether my tefillin were still kosher after four years. I asked myself if everything was still okay with them."

Speaking in an interview on Shabbat Mikol HaSibot, Cohen explained that he desperately wanted to reconnect with the mitzvah but had no idea where to begin.

"I kept asking myself, 'How do you put on tefillin? Who do I even ask? How do you do this?'" he said. "I simply didn't know how to approach it."

Then something extraordinary happened.

An Unforgettable Bus Ride

"One morning I woke up and was on my way to school. I stood waiting for about fifteen minutes, and then an old, run-down bus pulled up. I got on, and there weren't any seats inside. Behind the driver there was a raised platform instead of a floor. On that platform were cassette tapes explaining how to put on tefillin. The driver had a beard and a big smile."

Cohen was stunned by what he saw.

"I had never seen a bus without seats before," he recalled. "I asked the driver about the cassette tapes, and he told me they explained how to put on tefillin."

At that point, Cohen decided to share what had been weighing on him.

"I told him, 'Listen, I've been asking myself how to put on tefillin, and I just don't know how.'"

The driver's response left him speechless.

"He said, 'Why do you think I came? I'm here to show you, to explain to you how to put on tefillin.' That completely shook me."

The Answer Came Immediately

"At first, it actually frightened me," Cohen admitted. "Something had come so quickly in response to my question, to this deep desire I had about learning how to do it."

As he continued driving, the driver handed Cohen one of the cassette tapes along with a small book.

"I held them in my hands and got off at school. I thanked him and said goodbye. The ride lasted only about seven minutes."

Then Cohen concluded with the moment that changed his life: "Those were the days when I took my tefillin out of the closet."