Mezuzah Checking and Tefillin Checking
A mezuzah or pair of tefillin is only as kosher as its scroll, and scrolls age: heat, moisture, and time crack ink and fade letters. That is why halacha establishes a checking schedule, and why every scroll we sell is examined before it ever ships. Here is how checking works, in plain English.
How Often Should They Be Checked?
The halachic standard is twice every seven years, roughly once every three and a half years, and many families have their mezuzahs checked annually, often in the month of Elul before Rosh Hashanah. Tefillin worn daily are presumed to stay kosher, but checking is recommended whenever straps crack, boxes lose their shape or squareness, or the tefillin get wet.
If you are new to tefillin, our guide to how tefillin are made explains the batim, parshiyot, and retzuot that a check examines.
What the Examiner Looks For
Checking is done by a magiah, a certified examiner trained specifically for this work. A magiah looks for two categories of problems: physical deterioration (cracked or faded letters, water damage, wear along the fold lines) and writing defects (a missing letter, letters that touch, improper spacing, or a letter whose shape no longer meets the halachic standard).
On tefillin, the batim and retzuot are examined too: squareness of the boxes, fully black straps of proper width, and intact stitching with kosher sinew (giddin). Many sofrim check only the scrolls, so it is worth insisting on a check that covers all three components.
Computer Checking, and Its Limits
Modern checking adds another safeguard: the scroll is scanned and compared letter by letter against the exact required text, which is extremely good at catching missing, extra, or swapped letters that even careful human reading can miss.
But a computer cannot rule on whether a letter's form is halachically valid; that judgment belongs to a trained magiah. That is why our standard is both: every scroll we sell is computer-checked letter by letter, examined by a magiah, and reviewed by our in-house Torah scribe in Los Angeles. Read more in our article on computer-checked mezuzahs, and see a real example in a mistake found in tefillin.
Why Some Errors Cannot Simply Be Fixed
Two rules of STaM writing decide whether a defect is repairable:
- Shelo k'sidran, written in order: mezuzahs and tefillin must be written in sequence. If an earlier letter turns out to be invalid after later letters were written, it cannot simply be rewritten in place, which is why some defects cannot be economically repaired.
- Chok tochot, no carving: letters must be written, not formed by scraping ink away. A flawed letter can sometimes be completed by adding ink, but in some cases a sofer may erase and rewrite, though never a Divine name, and never letters out of order in tefillin and mezuzahs.
This is also why an inexpensive scroll with a serious writing defect is usually replaced rather than repaired, and why buying a properly written, properly checked scroll in the first place matters. Every handwritten sofer STaM scroll we sell is checked this way before it ships.
Tefillin Checking Costs More, Here Is Why
Tefillin checking follows the same rules but involves more labor: the batim must be opened, the parshiyot removed and examined, and everything reassembled and resewn with kosher sinew. That reassembly is skilled, time-intensive work, which is why tefillin checking costs more than mezuzah checking.
Having Your Scrolls Checked
We check mezuzahs and tefillin at our Los Angeles workshop, the same team that examines every scroll we sell. Here is how the service works:
- Mezuzah checking: $19.95 per scroll, or $14.95 per scroll when you send five or more.
- Tefillin checking: $100 per pair, reflecting the reassembly work described above.
- Shipping: included in both directions. We provide the labels.
- Turnaround: typically 2 to 5 business days after your scrolls arrive.
To begin, write to service@mezuzahstore.com. We will set up your order, send the shipping labels, and return everything carefully packed with the results. Since your doorposts will be bare for a few days anyway, it is also a natural moment to replace a worn mezuzah case or a cracked scroll.
