הַסֹּלֵ֥חַ לְכָל־עֲוֺנֵ֑כִי הָ֝רֹפֵ֗א לְכָל־תַּחֲלֻאָֽיְכִי׃
C’est lui qui pardonne toutes tes fautes, guérit toutes tes souffrances;
Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot
Rebbi Yannai was wearing them after his sickness for three days, to show that sickness cleanses89This statement supports the interpretation that the “clean body” required from a wearer of tefillin is a body cleansed from sinful thoughts, since a person recovered from sickness is a person all whose sins have been forgiven. It is spelled out in Midrash Tehillim 103 that the first three days, R. Yannai wore his tefillin the entire day but after that he was putting them on only for prayer.. What is the reason? (Ps. 103:2): “He Who forgives all my sins, He Who heals all my sicknesses.” Rebbi Yoḥanan ben Zakkai’s tefillin were not coming off from him either in summer or in winter. And so did his student Rebbi Eliezer after him.90This shows that before the war of Bar Kokhba, the wearing of tefillin the entire day in the Land of Israel was not unheard-of.