[Avodah] Mezuzah

[Eli Turkel]

Ari Zivotofsky has an article on kissing mezuzot in the latest Jewish
Action. In particularly he references an article In Techumim (10:417) on
the mezuzah as a segulah by R. Y. Lichtenstein.

I enclose a brief summary

In Chazal
1) The Mezuzah should be on the outer tefach of the house to protect the
entire house. For a wordly king the guards waych over the king but now G-d
watches over man,
2) The story with Onkeles touching the Mezuzah while being taken away by
the Roman soldiers with a similar message
3) Yerushalmi - Atevan sent a diamond to Rebbi and in return Rebbe sent him
a Mezuzah. When Artavan complained Rebbe answerwed that you sent me
something that I need to watch while I sent to you something that watches
over you (whole discussion in commentaries on how Rebbe sent a Mezuzah to a
Gentile and how it protects him)

Rashi explains that the protection the Mezuzah gives is from "Mazikim"
(demons), Maharam Rotenberg states that any house that has Mezuzot is
protected from
Mazikim. In his house he had 24 mezuzot including his winter home and the
gate to the public etc.
In his bet medrash where he occasionally slept he had problems (ruach ra-ah
me-va-ato) until he put up a mezuzah there.

Many rishonim added the names of angels to the parshiyot of mezuzah. It was
done in a way so it was clear it was not part of the parsha and so no
problem of ba-al tosif. (includes sefer hapardes and machzor vitri of
Rashi). Other rishonim eg
semag claim that it is still a problem of ba-al tosif.

As expected Rambam disagrees and says that the Mezuzah does not protect
from Mazikim but rather it protects the person from sin and so G-d protects
the house.
The Rosh agrees with Rambam.

Maharil and later RMF allow allow using a mezuzah as a kameah (I assume
meaning wearing around the neck) including the names of angels. RMF argues
that even Rambam would agree that when it is not used as a mitzvah (ie on
the sidepost of the room) it is okay and proves it from the story that
Rebbe sent a Mezuzah to Artevan. OTOH Beer Sheva prohibits using a Mezuzah
as a kameah.

As discussed above there is another section on giving a Mezuzah to a nonJew.


-- 
Eli Turkel
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