[Avodah] The Protection Offered by a Mezuza

[Zev Sero]

On 24/12/17 05:38, Prof. Levine via Avodah wrote:
> At 06:58 PM 12/23/2017, Harav Baruch Gigi wrote:
> The following is from RSRH's commentary on Devorim 6:9  And write
> them upon the [door-]
> posts of your house and upon your gates.
> 
> The mezuzah is not an amulet; in and of itself, it does not protect the
> house. Only insofar as they shape their lives in accordance with the mezuzah 's
> content can the people within the house expect help and protection
> from God, the "All-Sovereign and All-Sufficing," in all the vicissitudes
> of domestic life.

That may be RSRH's opinion, but if so it contradicts Chazal and 
millennia of Jewish belief and practise.  No, the mezuzah is not an 
amulet; if it were not a mitzvah it would have no inherent power.  But 
the *mitzvah* of mezuzah protects regardless of how those within the 
house "shape their lives".  Even a goy who puts up a mezuzah, choosing 
to voluntarily fulfil this mitzvah, can expect this protection.  The 
mitzvah protects those who fulfil it not only when they are inside the 
house it adorns, but wherever they are.  And, most astonishingly, 
although it is true that a mezuzah itself is not an amulet, there are 
legitimate grounds to believe that carrying it around "zecher lamitzvah" 
*does* give some level of protection, even though no mitzvah is being 
fulfilled.


-- 
Zev Sero                May 2017, with its *nine* days of Chanukah,
zev at sero.name           be a brilliant year for us all