[Avodah] No Right to Mezuzot at Condos

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 10:53:12AM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
: OK, so would you say that if you can't paint your house any colour you
: want, then you don't have enough ba'alus to obligate you in mezuzah?
: If a restriction on painting the house doesn't strip you of ba'alus,
...

I have no idea what RDL would have said. I didn't ask him. I would not
assume your last sentence.

:>: In this case the owners retain the right to put up a mezuzah, but only
:>: inside; the fight is over whether they can put it up where lechatchila
:>: it belongs, on the outside.  My sympathy is certainly with them, but in
:>: the meantime they can put it up inside...

:> They /could/. I was repeating my old recollection of a theoretical
:> discussion of whether they /must/.

: If they can, then surely they must...

I can hang a mezuzah on a doorway of a building that I own. But if I'm
contractually obligated to leave the tenants where they are, I'm not
obligated to.

It has nothing to do with the fact that the thing he lacks control over
happens to be the hanging of the mezuzah itself. And thus, the ability
to hang it elsewhere doesn't change the argument.

Lemaaseh, I think RDL would still argue the mezuzah should go up.
Just that it's not a chiyuv.

In the case of a dorm room, YU was allowed to relocate us at will (not to
mention had heavy restrictions about what we may do in and with the room),
so th e mezuzah was their chiyuv, not ours. Not because of ownership,
but because of control. I didn't think to ask who the "they" is; questions
of halakhah and corporate entities weren't on my mind at the time.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A life of reaction is a life of slavery,
micha at aishdas.org        intellectually and spiritually. One must
http://www.aishdas.org   fight for a life of action, not reaction.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            -Rita Mae Brown