Mezuzah Prayer and Tradition
We are now going to discuss fulfilling the Mitsvah that appears twice on the Torah uch’satam al mezuzos baisecha, you shall write these words, the words of the Shamah and Vahia im shemoah from Vethanan and Achev respectively in the book of Devarim in book of Deutoronomy. We are going to discuss how to do this. How to play Semisuzah. As you can see, there is a parchment scroll rolled up in a loose side container. This scroll contains within a two parts (Jewish) which are both found in Devarim in the book of Deuteronomy. And the idea of the Mezuzah is that everything that a Jew is involved in becomes a vessel and vehicle for godliness. There is nothing ordinary, everything can be made holy and must be made holy. So something like the home, in which so much of our life takes place within the home needs to have both a reminder and as if we were an antenna to draw godly light and energy down to make the home the kind of peaceful and holy place it needs to be. So the first rule of a Mezuzah is that is placed on the right of the main entrance. It is placed on every door but the door to a closet that is not a walk in the closet or a bathroom. Any room that you ordinarily walk into when use has a Mezuzah placed on it. The first door one enters the Mezuzah is placed to the right of one’s access and therefore, as we walk in the Mezuzah’s is to our right. Once we are inside the building though. Mezuzahs are placed in different ways. There are some different practices and opinions. I will show you what we do here at the Betkhabad and you certainly cannot go wrong if you follow this. The Mezuzah here is on the right entering. How do I see entering? Well, one is not a real good way out of here. But the other reason, the easy way to do it is you look which way the door opens. Whichever way the hinges open into will go in there to the right. Again, the first door going into a house is always on the right even if the door opens outwards. But going in, you follow the hinges. In a place where there is no door, once you put a Mezuzah but without saying the blessing, without saying the Brakah, I want you to still place the Mezuzah but then you place it whichever way the traffic comes from outside. This is the Mezuzah, as you can see, it has the two parsiot they are written by a scribe in a special way. This Mezusote especially those that are outdoor and need to be checked on a regular basis because the ink does flake off. This Mezuzah is not cushier, it is not fit, as you can see that for example this letter is broken. The leg of the tough is not complete and as you can see other leathers have begun to fade. So this Mezuzah needs to be fixed in order to be cushier. But what we would do if it was a cushier Mezuzah is it will be rolled up from back to front so that the name of Hashem Sakai, the name of god which means god who has sufficient for everyone’s needs would be placed like this then it would be placed in the case and then, with the case, it is placed on the door and you can tape it to the door, you can take the case to the door and you can nail the case to the door and when one places it on the door and if you are doing many Mezusote like in a new house, a new apartment, you say the blessing once. It is Barukh atah hashem elokainu melaku alam (Jewish prayer). It is placed about shoulder height for an average person or alternatively at the bottom of the beginning of the top third of the door, about shoulder height, this is both and this is where it is placed. It is traditional to touch the Mezuzah and some also kiss their fingers when they walk in and out.