778. Finding Tefillin on Shabbos
Shabbos 19:22
If a zav (a man who has experienced a particular type of emission) goes out with a receptacle, he is liable because this is the way such a receptacle is transported. This is so even though he doesn’t need the receptacle itself but he uses it only to keep his clothes from being stained. This is because a person is liable for performing an act of labor even if he doesn’t actually need the labor that he performed.
Shabbos 19:23
If a man finds a pile of tefillin in a public domain on Shabbos, he should wear a pair in the regular way – on his head and his arm, respectively – then enter a building and remove them there. After this, he should go back, put on another pair, return to the building to remove them, and continue in this way until all the tefillin have been brought inside. If there are so many pairs of tefillin that he will not be able to bring them all inside by wearing them, he should stay there and guard them until nightfall, then simply carry them in after Shabbos. If it is a time of anti-Semitic government decrees so that he is afraid to loiter there until nightfall, he should cover the tefillin, leave them where they are and go on his way.