A pale sun rises over the desert beyond the wall. I bind my arm with the black straps of tefillin, fasten a small black box on my forearm, facing my heart, another on my forehead. Heart and mind bound in devotion. Inside the boxes are biblical verses, including the seminal Jewish prayer proclaiming God’s oneness: “Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is One.” Or as the Qur’an puts it: “He is the One God, God the Eternal, the Uncaused Cause of all being.”
