Mezuzah at car dealership
This yid owns a car dealership and is very proud of his mezuzah at the entrance to his show room:
But is such a case Halachically acceptable?
How about the Bais of Uleovdo?
Popular posts from this blog
shin in "Alter Rebbe" script
Both the Shulchan Aruch Harav and the Mishnah Brurah use similar terminology when describing the importance of the shin being "pointy" on the bottom and all three branches of the letter shin meeting at a point or "chad" at the bottom of the letter. There is a strong foundation in Halacha for this and for the bottom of the shin to be flat like a moshav (base) is considered questionable (Pri Megadim) and definitely not Kosher Lechatchillah. It is worse if the moshav is very wide, but it is still questionable if it is lechatchillah if there is a thick noticeable base rather than a chad. Even for Sephardim, who lechatchillah make an angular base, it is still important that the base is indeed on a (significant) angle. If the base is flat, even if all three branches of the shin come out of the base connected , as in the top picture, it is problematic. It is worse in the bottom picture below where the right head/ branch comes out of the right part of the base and the m
Ink, Kosher vs. non-Kosher
We all know that there is no ancient source that requires ink to be מן המותר בפיך . Possibly, as said here before, because in the olden days ink was always מן המותר בפיך and the question was never raised. It was probably self-evident. Nowadays, no decent Rav will approve an ink which is not מן המותר בפיך . Who was the first one to raise this question? Was it raised because of animal ingredients or because of non-kosher wine?
Although this is less of a problem of having human figurine mezuzah cases (based on 'tzuros efilu Lenoi' as explained in Yoreh Deah), which unfortunately is some what common. Nonetheless this is not in the ruach of the mitzvah, I find this worse then a team logo kippah being that the Rambam writes (end of Hilchos Mezuzah) that everytime one passes by a mezuzah they are to remind themselves of Yichud Hashem...
ReplyDeleteAlthough mi-ikur hadin, this is not asur. It is not preferable as well.
With some people we need to know who we are dealing with before we tell them something. This fits with the axiom מוטב שיהי' שוגגים ואל תהי' מזידין
On the other hand, it's makes the fact that there is a Mezuza there more conspicuous (to us) and less apt to be vandalized (them). The Gemara speaks of utterly hiding the mezuza in an shallow hole in the doorpost, plastered over. Not much chance of it reminding us of Yichud Hashem there.
ReplyDeleteNote the wheels are touching the wall, not the actual car, so there is a gap between most of the "case" and the wall
ReplyDeleteThere are Poskim (Minchas Yitzchak 10:95) who are machmir by "hefsef avir" (air space separation) however, the main view that if the mezuzah case is connected from top and bottom it is still a kosher affixing.
DeleteIn my sefer "Mezuzah:Divine Protection and Blessing" these matters (with pictures) are dealt with in detail (pages 91-92).