It seems that NY state has a whole section of business law that protects the consumer from being sold non-kosher Mezuzahs and Tefillin.
Here is a link to the section Just type Mezuzah in the search box and it will come up.
Pretty amazing huh?
Thanks to xerpentine for the tip.
I recently got this question in the email:
If I take down multiple Mezuzot for checking, do I make a Brocha when replacing them. I will not be placing them on the same door as they were taken down from as they were not marked to ensure this. What happens if one has be replaced due to its being possul?
This issue always comes up when people have their Mezuzah checked. The problem is that the answer is not so simple because there are several issues here, with multiple opinions involved.
Lets first deal with some more simple issues one by one and at the end I will suggest an answer to the emailer’s question.
1. Do you have to say a blessing when reaffixing a Mezuzah to the same door after having it checked?
There are several opinions regarding this. Some say that you would say a blessing if the Mezuzah was down for 24 hours others say you say a blessing only if it was down for 30 days. In this case, one should check with their local Rabbi to find out which custom they should observe. In a case where this is not possible, the rule is that we are always conservative about saying a blessing in a case of doubt. Therefore one would refrain from saying a blessing if the Mezuzah was down for less than 30 days.
2. Do you say a blessing when switching a Mezuzah from one door to another?
Yes. Assuming that the new door is obligated in a Mezuzah according to all opinions. That is to say it has an actual door that opens and closes and that doorway leads to a room that has more that 36 square feet and is used as a living space.
3. If the scribe finds something Passul (not kosher) in the Mezuzah and fixes it, do you say a blessing when re-affixing the Mezuzah to the same door?
First see answer to #1 regarding how long the Mezuzah was down. If the Mezuzah was down long enough it will require a new blessing in any case and this question becomes irrelevant.
Let’s assume though that you took the Mezuzah down and brought it straight to the sofer and he found something passul, fixed it and now you are ready to put it up on the same day. In this case, you must ask the sofer if the problem that he found was definitely passul according to all opinions or if he was just fixing something to make it better or to make it Kosher according to more opinions. If the sofer says that it was definately passul, you would make a blessing.
Based on all of the above:
In a case like the one described in the email the best thing to do would be to take one Mezuzah that you know was not on the front door and affix it to the front door saying a blessing. When you say the blessing, have in mind that it should exempt all of the other Mezuzahs. Then without interrupting, proceed to affix the rest of the Mezuzahs.
Here is a question that I got recently in the email:
My first floor ceiling now has a horizontal opening say .8 metres by .8
metres with a hatch bordered by a frame. When the hatch is opened you can
grab the loft ladder and access the loft. Does the hatch need a mezuzzah.
Can you place a mezuzah on the horizontal.
Here’s my answer:
Dear Sir,
Any door that is horizontal is exempt from a Mezuzah. In fact I have the same kind of hatch in my home here in Israel.
Be well,
Aaron Shaffier
MezuzahStore.com
We just got in some great Menorahs and Hanukkah Candles and put them up on the site. Can you believe Hanukkah is already around the corner? Here are a few of them:
Some of you may have tried to visit our site in the last 12 hours or so and found that the site was down. We had a really horrible experience with our web hosting company. When we realized that the site was down, we contacted customer support right away. It took them almost 7 hours to get the site back up. Also during that time, none of our company email addresses worked.
Please except our apologies if anyone was inconvenienced by the down time. We pay a lot of money to host with a company that has a reputation for high quality hosting. We didn’t expect this kind of thing with them.
In any case, keep your eyes on MezuzahStore.com. In the near future we are going to be upgrading the entire site. It is going to be very nice when it is done.
You will be happy to hear that the Israeli athletes at the Olympic village will have Mezuzahs on their door. Rabbi Freundlach of Chabad-Beijing affixed them this week. The Rabbi also is making sure that there will be kosher food available at all times at Dini’s Kosher Restaurant, situated near the American Embassy.
You can read the full story here.
I am gonna go ahead now and take the liberty of posting it on Mezuzah Planet. (But it won’t qualify for the $108 gift certificate.)
I wonder how the sweet and sour chicken is at Dini’s?
On Sunday I posted about my little project to take over the Google search results for terms like “Printable Mezuzah”. My goal was that people who are searching for a printable Mezuzah scroll would end up on a page on my site that explains why it is so important to have a real, Kosher Mezuzah scroll.
Well now it is Tuesday and it seems to be working quite well. If I do a Google search for “Printable Mezuzah” here is what I get:
You can see in the image above that the top result is a site that links my blog post. The second link is to the page I created. The third link is to the blog post. Of course at the time that you are reading this the results on Google may have changed. But at least for now I feel I have succeeded in my goal.
