Today we launched a new product that we call the Rick Perry Mezuzah. No, do not worry, we are not taking sides in the political debate of the country.
We made it to commemorate the Texas Mezuzah Law, which protected the right of residents to place religious items, including mezuzot (מְזוּזוֹת, mezuzahs), on their doors. The law was signed by Texas Governor Rick Perry, and according to the Jewish Herald-Voice/JTA report, it required homeowner associations to permit religious displays on residents’ doors, with the religious item under 25 inches and remaining in the doorway. You can read that original report here: Texas governor signs mezuzah law.
Since Governor Perry was the one who signed the law, we thought it would be funny to name the mezuzah after him. We also made it 26 inches tall, which was one inch bigger than the maximum size protected by the Texas law. It was our way of pointing out the absurdity of needing a law to protect something as basic as a mezuzah on a Jewish doorway.
The Rick Perry Mezuzah: A Texas-Sized Mezuzah Case
They say everything is bigger in Texas, so we decided the Rick Perry Mezuzah should be big too. The product was made from Jerusalem stone and measured 26 inches tall, over two feet high. It was meant to be a little serious, a little funny, and definitely large enough to make the point.
Tablet Magazine noticed the joke and covered it in an article titled Rick Perry’s Texas-Sized Mezuzah. The Forward also wrote about it, noting that MezuzahStore.com had created a large stone mezuzah in honor of Perry signing the law. You can read that piece here: Rick Perry’s Mezuzah.
The case itself was a one-of-a-kind statement piece. If you like that oversized look, you can also browse our extra large mezuzahs. If the Jerusalem stone material is what caught your attention, our Jerusalem stone mezuzahs collection is the better place to start.
Why the Texas Mezuzah Law Mattered
The Texas law came after disputes where residents were told they could not keep mezuzahs on their doors. That kind of story is always frustrating because a mezuzah is not ordinary decoration. It is a mitzvah (מִצְוָה, commandment) and one of the most visible signs of Jewish life in the home.
A mezuzah case may be visible from the hallway, but the heart of the mitzvah is the kosher scroll inside. The scroll contains Torah passages from the Shema and must be handwritten on klaf (קְלָף, parchment) by a qualified sofer STaM (סוֹפֵר סת״ם, Jewish scribe). If you want to understand this more deeply, our guide on what makes a kosher mezuzah explains why the scroll matters so much.
We have written more about the larger condo and HOA question in our article on whether a condo or HOA can ban a mezuzah. These stories may sound unusual, but they touch a very real issue: whether Jewish residents can live openly with a mezuzah on the doorpost of their own home.
The Email Reaction From Texas
Whenever we launch a new product that we think is interesting, we send out an email to customers who have opted in to our email list. A basic fact of email marketing is that if you send a message to thousands of people, a few will unsubscribe. That is perfectly fine. We only want to send emails to people who actually want to receive them.
But when we sent the email promoting the Rick Perry Mezuzah, we noticed something interesting. Almost all of the customers who unsubscribed were from Texas.
That made me wonder why. Maybe they saw the name Rick Perry in the subject line and unsubscribed on the spot. Maybe they assumed the product was a political endorsement, even though it was not. Maybe they were just tired of election season before it even really started.
Either way, it felt like an oddly specific reaction. We hardly had any unsubscribes from customers in the rest of the world, but Texas reacted immediately.
Was the Rick Perry Mezuzah an Early Political Indicator?
This is where the story gets funny. I started thinking that maybe the Rick Perry Mezuzah was an early indicator of how Jewish customers in Texas felt about Governor Perry before the 2012 election. Obviously, this was not a scientific poll. It was just an email list reaction from a mezuzah store.
Still, the pattern was hard not to notice. Most customers ignored the political name and understood the joke. Texas customers were the ones who seemed to react the most strongly.
So what do you think? Should we call the polling companies and sell them this information?
A Mezuzah Story That Became Bigger Than Expected
Looking back, the Rick Perry Mezuzah was one of those product ideas that became more interesting than we expected. It started as a lighthearted response to the Texas Mezuzah Law, but it ended up being covered by Jewish media and remembered as a very specific moment in mezuzah history.
The serious part is that no one should need a law to protect the right to put a mezuzah on a doorway. The funny part is that if Texas was going to protect mezuzahs up to 25 inches, we could not resist making one that was 26 inches tall.
That is how the Rick Perry Mezuzah was born: part joke, part statement, and part reminder that the mezuzah is small only when the law lets it be.
2 comments
@EatRunDive, there are some people who are accusing us of endorsing Perry, who they say, is a bigot.
There are others who support Perry and say that we are making fun of him and they are mad at us for that.
The vast majority of our customers are smart enough to understand exactly what we are doing which is having a bit of friendly fun at the Governors expense.
Everything y’all have written, including your smart*** last question, indicate that you DO endorse the candidate.
Are y’all not smart enough to realize that if you are losing subscribers you are losing business? I also notice that Facebook posts are urging people NOT to buy from you. Good luck in your next business.
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