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Sacred Objects & Ritual Items

Mezuzah

Also Known As Mezuza · Mezuzot (plural)
Household Ritual Objects

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Origin 100 BCE to 200 CE

A small parchment scroll fixed to the doorpost of a Jewish home, containing the first two paragraphs of the Shema handwritten by a scribe. The mezuzah is the scroll; the decorative case that everyone photographs is not the thing itself, and an empty or printed-facsimile case fulfils nothing.

It is fixed to the right-hand doorpost on entering, in the upper third, angled inward in Ashkenazi practice and vertical in Sephardi. Most rooms of a house require one, not only the front door. Many people touch it and then their fingers to their lips when passing. Scrolls are checked by a scribe twice in seven years, because letters crack and a cracked letter invalidates it.

Facts
Use
Who May Handle It
The household that keeps it 1
Fixed and maintained by the household of the house it marks
Consecration
Sanctified by the text it carries, not by a rite 1
Origins
Origin Period
100 BCE to 200 CE 1
Attributions
Tradition
Judaism 1
Learn More
The Words on the Doorpost

The mezuzah is a small parchment scroll fixed to the doorpost of a Jewish home, and it fulfils a commandment written into the very text it contains.

The commandment on the doorpost

The scroll holds the first two paragraphs of the Shema, handwritten by a trained scribe on parchment, and those passages include the instruction to write these words on the doorposts of the house, so the mezuzah literally does what the text inside it commands. It is fixed to the right-hand doorpost as one enters, set at a slant, and it is placed on the doorposts of the rooms of a dwelling, not only the front door. Many touch it and kiss the fingers on passing, a gesture of recalling the words within.

Made and checked

The validity of the mezuzah rests on the scroll, which must be written correctly by hand with every letter intact; a decorative case with no valid scroll, or a printed text, does not fulfil the commandment, and observant households have the scrolls checked periodically for faded or cracked letters. The case that protects the scroll may be plain or ornate and often bears the letter shin for one of the names of God. The object marks the home as Jewish and places the central declaration of the faith at every threshold, so that entering and leaving are framed by the words affirming the oneness of God.

The Parchment That Matters, and the Case That Does Not

A mezuzah is really two objects treated as one, a small handwritten parchment scroll and the case that holds it, and Jewish law cares a great deal about the first and almost nothing about the second.

What is sacred, and what is decoration

The parchment, klaf, is written by a trained sofer using the same exacting standards applied to a Torah scroll, containing the Shema and a following passage, and it is this scroll alone that carries sanctity. The case can be wood, metal, ceramic, glass or plastic, plain or elaborately decorated, bought at a gift shop rather than commissioned from a scribe, because the case is a container rather than a ritual text.

Who affixes it, checking, and what happens when it fails

Any observant Jew may affix a mezuzah to a doorpost, reciting a blessing as it is fixed at an angle near the top third of the frame, and custom calls for checking the parchment periodically, commonly twice every seven years, since damp, insects or fading ink can render it unfit without the case showing any sign of it. A parchment found posul is not thrown out with the case, it is treated like any worn Torah text, stored and eventually buried, while the case itself, carrying no sanctity of its own, can simply be reused with a fresh scroll inside it.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Belongs to Tradition

Judaism, Religions
Source Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd editionMichael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik (eds.)

Element Of

Orthodox Judaism, Denominations

Fixed to the right doorpost of every room used for living, holding a handwritten parchment rather than a decorative case alone.

Source Shulchan AruchJoseph Karo
Reform Judaism, Denominations

The doorpost marker was kept where much else was set aside, being a sign of the Jewish household rather than a ceremonial obligation of worship.

Related To

Torah, Scriptures & Texts

The mezuzah scroll contains the first two paragraphs of the Shema, drawn from the Torah, handwritten by a scribe.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of World ReligionsJohn Bowker (ed.)
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edition
Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik (eds.), Macmillan Reference USA, 2007on the mezuzah and the ShemaView the Source
The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
John Bowker (ed.), Oxford University Press, 1997View the Source
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