In the first year that we were living in Port Washington my parents came for a visit and we took them on a drive around some of the surrounding neighborhoods. In the car my dad enjoyed playing one of his favorite games of spotting the ,uzuzn mezuzot on the houses we passed. For him, the game was about identifying the Jewish neighborhoods and getting a sense of where the Jewish communities are based. Needless to say he was impressed by the number of ,uzuzn mezuzot that we saw, and the consequent size of the Jewish population on the island.
When we ask the question of how to identify a Jewish house
there are a variety of things we might look for once we are inside, but from
the outside the single identifying feature is the vzuzn mezuzah
which one will usually see on the doorpost of the home.
In our Torah, the first example we have of identifying a
Jewish home by an outward marking comes when the Israelites were in Egypt. On
the eve of the tenth plague the Israelites were told to take a lamb, to kill
it, and to take the blood “and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper
door posts of the houses” (Exodus 12:7). This marking would allow God to
identify the Israelite houses and to pass over them, so that their firstborn
children would be saved.
The actual commandment to have a vzuzn mezuzah
on the house comes later on in the Torah. The first occurrence may be familiar
as it forms part of the gna Shema. We read: “These words
that I command you this day … you shall write them upon the door posts of your
house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:6&8). The commandment of writing
them upon the door posts of your house and upon your gates is restated in
Deuteronomy 11:20, which is part of the traditional second paragraph of the gna Shema.
In this way the vzuzn mezuzah has come to
refer to the case and the parchment within it that are affixed to the doors of
our homes. The parchment contains the first and second paragraphs of the gna Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21, so that
the words of the commandment are actually part of the vzuzn mezuzah
itself.
The purpose of the vzuzn mezuzah
is to serve as a reminder of the Covenant and of our relationship with God. It
is not intended to ward away evil or to serve as an outward identifier of a Jewish
home. The purpose is so that when a Jewish person walks past it they remember
the Covenant. In a similar way the ,hmhm tzitzit, the fringed
garment that we traditionally way is supposed to remind us of the commandments
from God.
For all of us, the question is what do we think about when
we see a vzuzn mezuzah? Does it serve as a reminder of
the covenant or do we think about something else? And next time you see a vzuzn mezuzah what will you be thinking about?
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