[Avodah] MEZUZAH: PROTECTIVE AMULET OR RELIGIOUS SYMBOL?

[Prof. Levine]

One may download this article that appeared in Tradition at 
http://www.mesora.org/mezuza-gordon.pdf

Towards the end of this article the author writes

To claim, then, that the Divine inscription, which directs the attention of
the Jew to God, is possessed of its own potency, generating protective
benefits, perverts a spiritual instrumentality into a cultic charm.
It is precisely this type of conception which R. Samson
Rafael Hirsch attacks in his Nineteen Letters, when he criticizes
the kabbalistic position for its perception of mitsvot as a "magical
mechanism," a means of "influencing theosophical
worlds and anti-worlds." A belief in the potency of
the shem fits into neither of the two classic categories of mitsvah
initiative we have referred to.  It fosters neither the resourceful
practical effort toward physical security, nor the profoundly
spiritual bond with God.

The point is that the only legitimate criterion by which the
efficacy of mitsvat mezuzah should be measured is the depth
relationship with God that it has inspired.

YL
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