By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo in Hebron
בס"ד
Awakening Devotion to the Holy Presence in
Our Holy Land
"וּכְתַבְתָּם עַל מְזוּזוֹת בֵּיתֶךָ וּבִשְׁעָרֶיךָ. לְמַעַן יִרְבּוּ יְמֵיכֶם וִימֵי בְנֵיכֶם עַל הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע ה' לַאֲבֹתֵיכֶם לָתֵת לָהֶם כִּימֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם עַל הָאָרֶץ:"
"Our King, our God! Unify Your Name in Your world, build Your city, establish Your House, rectify Your Abode, and ingather our exiles..." (prayer supplement at end of Amida)
In regard to HaShem's "House", the Bais HaMikdash, there is an explicit commandment to have special awe of God within it (Rambam, Beit Habehira, 7). However, in every house the awareness of God is heightened when encountering the mezuzah at its entrance, as Rambam teaches us (Mezuza, 6, 13): "whenever a person enters or leaves [the house], he will encounter the unity of the name of the Holy One (as written in Shema on the mezuzah), blessed be He, and remember his love for Him.
Thus, he will awake from his sleep and his obsession with the vanities of time, and recognize that there is nothing which lasts for eternity except the knowledge of the Creator of the world. This will motivate him to regain full awareness and follow the paths of the upright." In a similar way, life in the "Land of Providence" carries within it the potential of heightened awareness to HaShem's Presence among us, also inspired by the holiness of space and location.
The truth is that this week's parsha, and actually the entire book of Dvarim (as already seen in its first verses), have especially great emphasis on the spiritual significance of location in general, and the Land of Israel in specific. Therefore, let us focus on the constant reminder of the mezuzah in our homes in our daily lives.
Rambam teaches us (ibid, 5, 10): "A person who rents a dwelling in the diaspora ... are exempt from the obligation [to affix a] mezuzah for thirty days. One who rents a house in Eretz Yisrael, however, is obligated [to affix a] mezuzah immediately". The source of this ruling is found in Menahot 44a, which explains this law as being for the sake of "settling the Land of Israel".
Rashi further explains that the reason for this law is so that 1. People will not easily abandon houses in the Land of Israel, knowing that they will have to make pains to establish adifferent mezuzah (elsewhere) 2. Even if the house is abandoned it will easily be leased again because it always has a mezuzah. Interestingly, we see that there is a link between the Land of Israel, our Forefathers, and the mezuzah already in the verses of the Torah themselves, by means of their juxtaposition (see title quote).
If we understand that the holiness of the Land of Israel and that of the mezuzah are intrinsically linked by the holiness in regard to location and by the awareness of the Holy Presence therein, then it is ever-more understandable why the Torah ordains that specifically the laws of mezuzah encourage the "settlement of the Land of Israel".
Next time we pass by the mezuzah on our doorpost let us remember the Unity of HaShem, the Holy Presence in our midst, the Holy Land - threshold of the Holy Presence, our Forefathers to whom the Land was promised, and the Holy City of Hebron, uniting all these concepts together in its essence, unifying all (lehaber, common roots, etc.) to the one and only God.
Real Stories from the Holy Land #28: I once decided to ask engineer A to give his opinion on repairs in a house we planned to buy. Of dozens of capable engineers in the area, the seller of the house separately recommended the exact same engineer."
