Hamas College Takeovers

Just before their exodus from Egypt G-d instructed our ancestors to slaughter a lamb and paint it’s blood on the doorposts of their homes. This would mark the home as Jewish and G-d would Pass Over the home when He struck the Egyptian firstborn. The paint on the doorpost protected the Jew from the plague of the first born. (1)

There is a similarity between the commandment to affix a scroll to our doorposts and the blood on our doorposts in Egypt. Our sages taught that when a Jew affixes a Mezuzah to the doorpost G-d protects the home from all harm. (2) In fact on the reverse  of the scroll affixed to the door are three Hebrew letters, Shin Daled and Yud, which spell one of G-d’s ineffable names, but tradition teaches that they are also an acronym for Shomer Daltot Yisrael, guardian of the Jewish door. (3)

This guardianship is not merely a reward for fulfilling this commandment, it is part and parcel of the commandment meaning that this commandment is designed specifically to protect our homes. (4) For example, if the doorway is deep, the scroll is placed on the outer section of the doorpost to include the entire home in the Mezuzah’s blanket of protection. (5)

Yet, to fulfill this commandment purely for the sake of protection is foolish for the Mezuzah contains a much deeper message than mere protection of the home. (6)

The Domicile of I

The doorpost represents a gateway into the domicile of I. All day long I am preoccupied with others. On the street I am conscientious of others. In the store I am obliged to pay others, at work I am required to serve others and in the market I am considerate of others.

When I finally arrive home at the end of a long day I can’t wait to enter the domicile of I. Here I have no master, but me. I don’t worry about my boss, my neighbors, my friends or my clients. Here I am my own person, I do what I like and enjoy. My doorpost is the gateway to my inner world. The world where the I is capitalized and where my dominion is exclusive.

It is here that I must pause for a moment to consider what I am. Being alone is a relief, but it can also be lonely. When I peer into the depths of my soul I can’t help but ask why I keep it up? What is my purpose and main thrust? I work for money, I shop for food, I eat to live, but what do I live for? The crux of the question is not only why do I do this, but how. What gives me the strength to carry on? What keeps me going?

This and That

The mystics taught that the Mezuzah, by its very name, answers that question. The word Mezuzah contains the two Hebrew words, Zu and Ze. Both Zu and Ze mean “this,” but Zu is feminine whereas Ze is Masculine. (7)

In our relationship with G-d we are often described as the bride to the groom. Accordingly, when the Torah speaks of us, it employs the feminine term Zu as in” Am Zu Yotzarti Li,” I formed this nation for myself. When the Torah speaks of G-d it employs the masculine Ze as in” Ze [K]eli,” this is my G-d. (8)

When we pause at the doorway and take in the Mezuzah we reflect on the words inscribed upon it. The first verse in the Mezuzah reads “Hear O’ Israel, G-d is our Lord G-d is one.” (9) It is the mission statement of the Jew and on a broader scale, of humanity. G-d is our lord. He is not an abstract being parked in the heavens. He is here with us down below. He is beside me and with me. (10)

We stop and think of this and that, the Jew and G-d. All day long I have relished the moment of coming home and being myself. Now that I am about to be me, I stop and reflect that I am never truly alone; G-d is always with me. He created me, gives me the strength to carry on and is my reason for living.

It is not just about me, it is about G-d and me. I am alive so I can fulfill His commandments. I have time for myself so I can study the Torah. I have extra money so I can support the poor. I have a home so I can raise my children, the next generation of G-d’s servants. Of course I enjoy the fruits of my labor along the way. Along my path in life, I built a home, established a family, developed a circle of friends, enjoy family and social time, established a reputation, grew my career and do all kinds of things that I enjoy. But I never forget the reason behind it all. I never forget that the sum of all things is to stand with G-d. (11)

In fact the Mezuzah teaches me that I am not a separate entity from G-d, a person, who serves Him. G-d and I, this and that, merge completely in the formation of the word, Mezuzah. We are a single entity; G-d created and sustains me so that I would serve Him. We are a circle that closes on itself in perfect symmetry. A single unit. A Mezuzah. (12)

The Door

The Mezuzah is affixed to the door. The word for door in Hebrew is Delet. In Hebrew, an incredibly sophisticated language, every word is intimately linked with others. Delet is linked with the word Dal, which itself has two separate and even contrary meanings. It means impoverished and it means to uplift, which in some ways are symmetrical because the impoverished are the ones that require uplifting.

The doorway is the point of interface between our home and the world and between ourselves and G-d. Its name, Delet, is linked with dalut, poverty, which is our condition before we realize our ever present connection with G-d. But it is also linked with ascendance – the condition that results from our contact with G-d.

When I approach my home, the domicile of I, and think only of myself, I am deprived of the richness and infinite depth of meaning life bestows upon me. I become an impoverished soul. Fittingly, it is upon this Delet, that I affix a Mezuzah and allow G-d to lift me up. (13)

Footnotes

1. Exodus 12: 7, 13, 22 and 23.
2. A human king sits indoors and his servants guard him from outside. We sleep peacefully in our beds and G-d guards us from outside. Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zarah 11a.
3. Siddur Hoari Zal: Kavanas Mezuzah.
4. See Tosafot on Menachos 34a. Bach on Yorah Deah, 285 and Likutei Sichos v. 19, pp. 121-128.
5. Babylonian Talmud, Menachos 33b.
6. Tur, Yorah Deah, end of ch. 285.
7. Sefer Haliukutim (Tzemach Tzedek) on Mezuzah: p.198. The Hebrew letter mem at the beginning of the word is for the 40 days during which Moses received the Torah at Sinai, which enables the union of “Zu” and “Ze.” (Sefer Mamarim 5698, p. 180.
8. Isaiah 43: 21 and Exodus 15: 2.
9. Deuteronomy 5:4.
10.  My wife’s grandmother lost her husband at a relatively young age. She once wrote to the Lubavitcher Rebbe OBM that she is lonely. The Rebbe’s response resonated with her. A Jew is never lonely, the Rebbe told her, A Jew is always with G-d.
11. Torah Ohr, Miketz, 42c.
12. The Zohar teaches (Tikunei Zohar Tikun 22) that the Torah commands us to write Mezozot in the plural. The letters of the word Mezuzot can be rearranged to read Zaz Mavet, which means death is removed. G-d is the source of all life and connection with G-d is a bond with the flowing pulsing flow of life. Anything that separates me from G-d is the antithesis of life. My reflections at the Mezuzah ensure that my home life is suffused with Divinity and fully alive. Zaz Mavet, the spirit of life’s antithesis, the impure temptations that lure me from G-d, are removed.
13. This is the secret of the name David, which is spelled with two Daleds and the name Dodi, my beloved, ascribed to G-d by King Solomon in Song of Songs. The double Daled connotes the lifting up of the impoverished. This relationship entails a dual dynamic, the human must rise up and G-d must reach down. Hence both G-d and the human are given names with the secret of the two Daleds.
    In this dynamic G-d responds to the entreaty of the human, but on Passover we reached a point of complete transcendence whereby G-d passes over the door. The door (the dual Daled dynamic) represents the point of interface between G-d and the human. Passing over the door represents a gift that G-d bestows of His own volition. This sort of gift is not commensurate with our effort. It is completely beyond our reach, given us only as a gift from above.
    This higher gift is reflected in the letter Hei – the letter immediately after or above the Daled. The letter Hei appears twice in the Tetragrammaton, the name of G-d’s essence, which corresponds to the two Daleds in the names David and Dodi. This is why Passover centers on the Hei as evidenced by the Hei in the word Matzah (unleavened bread), which is distinguished from the word Chametz (leavened bread) only by its Hei.
    Mezuzah also touches on this transcendence and though it is centered on the letter Daled it also has shades of Hei. This is evidenced by the word Hebrew Dirah, which means domicile, vis a vis the word Dir, which means a horse’ stall. A stall does not require a Mezuzah, only a human domicile necessitates one. The difference between living as a beast and living as a human is rooted in the letter Hei. When we live as recipients of G-d’s blessing and as His servants we underscore the essence of what it means to be human and are thus capable of connecting with G-d. Once capable we become required to affix a Mezuzah to our doorpost. This thought grows even richer when we consider the version of the Kolbo, who wrote that the three letters on the reverse of the Mezuzah scroll represent the words Shomer Dirot Yisrael.

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