[Avodah] mezuzah

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 11:39:36AM +0300, Eli Turkel wrote:
:> The Rambam would say that the mitzvah of mezuzah earns shemirah. Straight
:> sekhar va'onesh, nothing about the power of an object.
: 
: Nevertheless it is clear that it is the mitzvah of mezuzah that gives
: shmira and not just getting schar from any mitzvah.

But midah keneged midah would imply that the sekhar for having a reminder
of the true Shomer dalsos Yisrael whenever you enter your shelter would
be shemirah.

Just as someone who isn't medaqdeiq in sanctifying the act of eating,
elevating a basically animalistic activity, runs the risk of timtum
haleiv and being as spiritually insensitive as an animal.

: Also halachically one should put the mezuzah as far outside as possible to
: include whatever possible of the house within the shmira.

There are two reasons given on Menakhos 33b for Raba's statement that the
mezuzah should be on the tefach closest to reshus harabim. The Rabbanan
say that it's in order to encounter the mitzvah as early as possible. R'
Chanina of Sura says it's so that more of the house gets shemira.

Is R' Chanina offering a fundamentally different answer than the
Rabbanan? Or is he saying that we want to encounter the mitzvah as
early as possible SO THAT more of the house gets shemira. (Why not simply
zerizim maqdimim? I don't know.) I would suggest that the followup quote,
also from R' Chanina leans away from a mechanistic interpretation of
the shemirah of the mezuzah. He contrasts a king to HQBH. A king sits
inside and the nation guards him, but HQBH "avadav yoshevin mibifnim,
vehu mashamran mibachutz." It wouldn't be a meaningful followup to R'
Chanina emphasizing the object of the mezuzah as a step between between
HQBH and the shemirah. (In this, R' Chanina is paraphrasing Unqelus
haGeir's response to the Roman soldiers sent to fetch him on AZ 11a. The
quote different pesuqim, though.)

: Connecting this to "inanei de-yoma" while during asetert yemei hateshuva
: all mitzvot are encouraged nevertheless the stress is
: on certain mitzvot like charity and prayer as saving us and not just the
: schar from any mitzvah

And I'm saying that /is/ sekhar. By extending ourselves to others and
connecting to HQBH we do more to earn being saved in particular than
with other mitzvos. Besides, teshuvah, tefillah and tzedaqah are Torah,
Avodah and Gemillus Chassadim, respectively. We're committing to renewing
the foundations upon which the rest of Avodas H' stands.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The greatest discovery of all time is that
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