- Phylacteries are small leather boxes containing the Sh'ma (Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one....) and the Ten Commandments. They are bound to one's arm and forehead when praying, according to the commandment in Deuteronomy 6.
- Tassels are worn by observant Jews, peaking out from underneath their regular clothes. They are attached to a tallit, a prayer garment. Both the tallit and the kippah (head covering) are reminders during the day that one is under God's authority and called to pray to God.
- Matthew's gospel was written about ten years after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, so Jesus' words here must have had an eerie quality in Matthew's community.
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