And HaShem spoke to Moshe, saying: exact the vengeance of B'nei Israel from the Midianites, afterwards you will be gathered unto your people. And Moshe spoke to the nation saying: call up men to the army, and they will go (to war) on Midian to exact HaShem's vengeance upon Midian. One thousand from a tribe, one thousand from a tribe send to the army from all the tribes of Israel. And they sent from the thousands of Israel a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand called up to the army.
 

The Midrash Rabbah writes:
Rabbi Hananiah ben Itzchak said: The twelve thousand went to the war of Midian, they who came up from the cleansing waters, (as alluded to in Shir HaShirim 4:2, meaning they were pure and faithful). Rabbi Huna said: Not even one of them preceded the Tefillin of the head to the Tefillin of the hand, since, had one of them preceded the Tefillin of the head to the Tefillin of the hand, Moshe would not have praised them and they would not have returned unharmed. This is to say that they: were completely righteous.
 

The question arises: what is the special importance of the Tefillin of the head not preceding the Tefillin of the hand? Wouldn't we have thought that the lofty mitzvah of Tefillin in and of itself, which was performed by all the men going out to the army, was praiseworthy?
 

Perhaps we can see in this a fundamental point.

There is a well-known halacha that one who intends to put on Tefillin, and he encounters the Tefillin of the head first, he must first put on the Tefillin of the hand, and only afterwards that of the head. This is the halacha, even though in general we have a principle that we do not pass over mitzvot. Nevertheless, this is an exception to this rule.

The hand is the part of the body which we use for nearly all our actions, it symbolizes activity.

Conversely, the head symbolizes thinking and understanding.
 

Just as Am Israel preceded "na'aseh" (we shall do) to "nishma" (we shall hear), so every Jew must be prepared to perform every mitzvah, even if at the present moment he does not understand the reason for it.
 

And the sages of previous generations explained at length that one must perform the mitzvot for the sole reason that we were commanded to observe them, and only afterwards he is to comprehend their reasons with his understanding and wisdom.
 

Similarly, the Rambam wrote:
 

Every man should contemplate, according to his abilities, the statutes of the holy Torah to know the ultimate reason for them. And if there is something which he finds no reason for, and doesn't know the rationale for it, he must not take it lightly, and he must not be presumptuous to (imagine he can) go up to HaShem, lest He wreak destruction on him. (Hilchot Me'ilah ch.8 halacha 8).

Indeed it is permitted and even a mitzvah to study the reasons for mitzvot, but under no circumstances may observing them be dependent on understanding them.

This is the principle underlying Tefillin: first of all the hand, the performance, and only afterwards the head, the understanding.
 

Therefore also regarding the removal of the Tefillin: we first remove the Tefillin of the head, and this demonstrates that even after we analyzed with our insight and exerted our intellect, we still remain with the deed itself by virtue of the Divine command.
 

May we merit to be totally and unconditionally committed to our holy Torah, along with studying and delving into it as deeply as possible.
 

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