Mezuzot & Tephillin Follow-Up

Question

Amen! After discovering that I was blessing on pasul tephillin which were purportedly purchased from a reliable source I spent over a week researching reliable sources in Israel and ran from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv to Bnei Brak numerous times to make sure that I got something mehadrin min hamehadrin. I took parchments from a supposedly excellent sofer and brought them to a reliable sephardic Rav at a Yeshiva before I bought them. He basically told me they weren't worth the ink they were written with. Then I brought him another set from another source that he examined and approved. I took them back and watched while the sofer rolled, folded and tied the parchments and inserted them into the batim to make sure I was buying what I had checked. I learned the laws of the batim and how they should look and how they should be constructed and chose them myself from amongst 20 sets. And yet, I still will never know if maybe there isnt still one little thing wrong with them. Now I bless and wear them with the knowledge that I literally made myself sick with a fever running around for a week all day every day to make sure I got a kosher set of tephillin, not to mention paying a pretty penny for them! It is truly rediculous that I had to go through all that to fulfill what should be an easy mitzvah to perform, and I have no doubt that most people don't do what I did because I only did what I did because I was duped the first time and sinned every day for over ten years because of it. I have only myself to blame. I tried to take solace in a story I was told of a great Rav who had his tephillin checked regularly by the greatest of sophrim. It was the same pair he had used from the day of his bar mitzvah. One day at the age of 80 a baki checked his tephillin and found a mistake that no one else had caught. They feared that the Rav would have a heart attack if they told him the truth. But when they told him he started dancing and singing! "Why are you so happy they asked the Rav"? "Because tomorrow I begin performing the mitzvah of tephillin!" So, my humble advice: Don't be afraid to get parchments checked by a reliable source who is not trying to make a profit off you before you buy them! You wouldn't get surgery without a second opinion! No reliable sofer will be insulted if you ask him to do this. Leave a deposit and make sure. If they say no then you've probably just saved yourself from buying pasul tephillin.