The Power of the Mezuzah

The word mezuzah in Hebrew means “doorpost.” It refers to an ornamental case affixed to the right door frame on Jewish homes. Jewish families mark their houses in fulfillment of a commandment appearing twice in the Torah that prayers should be written “upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates.” The mezuzah is the dividing line between the chaos of the outside world and the sanctity inside a Jewish home.

What matters most about a mezuzah is what’s found inside. Each mezuzah contains a small scroll of parchment (k’laf) with a prayer called the Sh’ma (found in Deuteronomy). The Sh’ma translates to “Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” This is the central tenet of Judaism, a belief in the oneness and singularity of God. Observant Jews recite the Sh’ma twice daily. It’s not merely an acknowledgement that there is only one God but that every particle of existence is a manifestation of God’s essence. (Jesus considered the Sh’ma to be the first of his two greatest commandments, the second being “Thou shalt love God with all thy heart.”)

While a mezuzah is not biblically mandated to ward off evil, it hearkens back to Passover when Moses freed the Israelites from bondage under Pharaoh. God pronounced ten plagues on the Egyptians including the death of their firstborn sons. God commanded the Jewish people to mark their own doorposts with the blood of a…