COMPROMISE:
Rabbenu Tam (Rashi’s grandson): Mezuzah should be affixed horizontally, because the Ten Commandments and the Torah scrolls were kept horizontally in the ark in the Temple.
-Three hundred years later this view was codified again by the Rema, an Ashkenazi commentator, who noted that slanting a mezuzah had become the common custom among Ashkenazi Jews. (Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews today still hang their mezuzot vertically.)
INSIDE THE MEZUZAH: Blessings
(4) Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. (5) You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (6) Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. (7) Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. (8) Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead; (9) inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
(13) If, then, you obey the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day, loving the LORD your God and serving Him with all your heart and soul, (14) I will grant the rain for your land in season, the early rain and the late. You shall gather in your new grain and wine and oil— (15) I will also provide grass in the fields for your cattle—and thus you shall eat your fill. (16) Take care not to be lured away to serve other gods and bow to them. (17) For the LORD’s anger will flare up against you, and He will shut up the skies so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its produce; and you will soon perish from the good land that the LORD is assigning to you. (18) Therefore impress these My words upon your very heart: bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead, (19) and teach them to your children—reciting them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up; (20) and inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates— (21) to the end that you and your children may endure, in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to assign to them, as long as there is a heaven over the earth.
THE SPECS:
A mezuzah is affixed to every doorway in your home or office that leads into a proper room, except for the bathroom. A room is any enclosed space that's at least 6.5 ft. x 6.5 feet. This includes vestibules, hallways, large walk-in closets, etc.If there are several doorways leading into a room, each doorway requires its own mezuzah. Doorways without doors (e.g., archways between rooms) also require a mezuzah.
-A mezuzah is affixed on the right doorpost, approximately, at the bottom of the top third of the doorpost.
-For the front door, the right doorpost is the doorpost to the right of the person entering from the street. In internal doorways, it is the doorpost to the right of a person entering in the direction towards which the door opens. If there is no door, think about importance and function: the dining room is more important in the hierarchy of the home (it's used more formally) than the kitchen, so in a doorway between the dinning room and the kitchen, the mezuzah should be on the right of the person entering the dining room.
-To determine the proper height at which to affix the mezuzah, use a measuring tape to get the total height of the doorpost. Divide it into three, and measure that amount from the top of your doorpost. Use a pencil to mark the spot. Your mezuzah should sit right atop that mark.
The mezuzah must be hand-written by a competent ritual scribe (sopher) on specially prepared parchment with the specific types of quill and ink mandated by tradition. The mezuzah scroll is rolled from left to right and placed right-side-up in a protective case. Upon inserting the scroll in the mezuzah, be sure that the letter Shin will be upright and facing toward the doorway. Also take care that the role not be pinched or bent in the process.
The blessing is recited once, before putting up the mezuzahs. You will put up the first mezuzah on one of the most important doorways in your home, such as your bedroom. Have the mezuzah and tools in hand. As you recite the blessing, keep in mind that it applies to all the mezuzahs you will presently affix in your home.
Recite the blessing.
בָּרוּך אַתָּה יי אֶלוֹקינוּ מֶלֶך הָעוֹלָם אַשֶר קְדִשָנוּ בְּמִצְווֹתָיו וְצִיווָנוּ לִקְבּוֹעַ מְזוּזָה
Baruch Atah A-do-shem Elo-keinu Melech haolam asher kideshanu bemitzvotav vetzivanu likboa mezuzah.
Blessed are you, Lord our God, Sovereign of the Universe, Who has made us holy with [His/Hers] commandments and commanded us to affix a mezuzah.
- What are some rituals and traditions you have participated in or heard of for moving into a new home?
- What are additional opportunities for use of Jewish rituals and setting intentions daily and weekly outside of Shabbat and traditional blessings?
- Affixing the mezuzah is one step. Once the mezuzot are in place, how do we utilize these ritual objects to set kavannot (intentions) in our coming and going daily on the ways we wish to be in the world and in our homes?