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The Tefillin Counting “Hack”
Our readers belong to all age groups, including young men who just started putting on Tefillin, not to mention women who have zero practice (just kidding!), so if the foregoing is too obvious, just skip it.
There are seven wrappings of the tefillin strap around the forearm. Not seventy, not seventeen. If you’re like me: Is that six or seven? How to count?
Answer: Use “subitizing”. One can see up to three or four objects at a glance. After that, the mind counts serially.
So here’s what I do. I place my finger after the fourth wrap, then glance at what lies beyond. Three more? Done. This takes less than a second. It’s not Sefira where you have to count serially or verbally. Count from the wrist upward to avoid the “Fencepost Problem”.