Is there such a thing as being allergic to tefillin?
T.N., Elad Judy Siegel-Itzkovich comments: I have been holding on to this query for several weeks, as I did not find an expert who could answer the question. Fortunately, while reading the latest issues of the Hebrew-language Israel Journal of Family Practice and the Israel Journal of Dermatologic Surgery and Dermatology (both published by Medical Media in Netanya, I found identical articles by Dr. Ehud Werner, an independent physician with Maccabi Health Services and Kupat Holim Meuhedet in Kiryat Ono who deals with this exact problem. He says that “tefillin allergy” is relatively rare in Israel. It is due not to the tefillin themselves that contain parchment, but to the potassium dichromate used to process the leather straps. There have been no reported reactions to the formaldehyde or black dye (PPD) used to make the tefillin. “From our experience, the allergy first appears from the age of 13 [bar mitzva] when a boy starts praying with tefillin but can [suddenly] appear even in elde
