According to Rabbi Aroussi via his right hand
man: We've actually been through this in the Kollel and interviewed all of the Zekenim (as we do on Fridays). The Rambam as he states only requires 3 sivuvim on the middle finger and a
kesher. We were witness to about three or four different methods of the kesher. According to Mori, the fourth time around the finger does not go all the way around the finger but goes down to the bottom of the kaf Hayad and then winds around the Kaf HaYad. The Kesher is made on the inside of the
palm (or the back of the hand if it is more convenient) by winding the excess tefillin around the strap that was wrapped around the Kaf HaYad.
This seems to have been the most popular method and the one
Mori claimed was authentic. According
to the Rambam, there is no mention of a
Shin or Dalet. Some people (haRambamiyim
sheBahavura) tied three times around
the finger and tied the rest to the strap
that comes from the forearm to the back of
the hand letting much of the
remaining strap hang. Many of these customs might
have been more recent
innovations on the part of the certain talmidei ha Rambam.
First, in
other areas of
Yemen, there weren't many differences between the "Kaf HaYad" and
secondly, the customs that don't make a Dalet seem to have the intention
of not making a sign of a cross on their hand. Perhaps that is also why Mori's
method
doesn't make a complete Dalet but adds the part from finger to bottom
of hand. Rabbi
Rasabi said the original dialet was a double, but he feels it was better to
change to the single small one. We
show the two most popular ways we've observed
below. The first is from the Baladhi-Rav Qafahh zs"l crowd. The second way is
the Baladhi-Mahari"s method we've observed in the USA.
NOTE:
There are
multiple Temani ways of wrapping it-- though everyone seems to agree on the hand (on
right) and head
knots (square according to the Rambam). One talmid of the Rambam told me that they didn't even wrap the arm years ago. Only
the box was attached to the upper arm. But I don't know about this.
From a Yemenite Website:
Mahari"s Method:
NOTE Although Rabbi Ratzabi does mention that the Yemenite
custom is the square double dalet,he seems to be encouraging
people to preferably do the single Dalet. This he arrives at
via his brand of Halachic reasoning and states at the end of
the discussion "Mihyot tov a'al Tikareh Ra'a" (very loosely
translated: "To be good one shouldn't be called bad" - or
to be considered good and G-d fearing by all one should do
what no one would say a bad thing about.