Mezuzah Checking and Tefillin Checking

A mezuzah or a pair of tefillin is only as kosher as the scroll inside it. Parchment is a living material, and it ages. Heat, humidity, and time crack ink and fade letters, and a klaf that was perfect the day it was written can quietly become pasul years later on your doorpost. That is why halacha sets a checking schedule, and why every scroll we sell is examined before it ever ships. Here is how mezuzah checking and tefillin checking actually work, in plain English.

We have been doing this since 1999, and we check mezuzahs and tefillin at our own Los Angeles workshop. Your scrolls are never sent to a stranger.

What Checking Costs and How Long It Takes

• Mezuzah checking: $19.95 per scroll, or $14.95 per scroll when you send five or more.
• Tefillin checking: $100 per pair, which reflects the reassembly work described below.
• Shipping: included in both directions. We send you the labels.
• Turnaround: typically 2 to 5 business days once your scrolls reach us.

To begin, email service@mezuzahstore.com and tell us what you are sending. We will set everything up, send the shipping labels, and return your scrolls carefully packed along with the results. For halachic questions, or anything you would rather ask a sofer directly, write to scribe@mezuzahstore.com.

Checking a whole building at once, for a shul, a school, or a Chabad house? We handle bulk mezuzah checking regularly and price it accordingly. See our wholesale and bulk orders page, or just tell us how many doorways you have.

How Often Should They Be Checked?

The halachic standard for mezuzahs is twice every seven years, which works out to roughly once every three and a half years. Many families check theirs annually instead, often during the month of Elul before Rosh Hashanah, when we are already taking stock of everything else.

Tefillin worn daily are presumed to remain kosher, so there is no fixed schedule. But checking is recommended whenever the retzuot crack, the batim lose their shape or squareness, or the tefillin get wet. Inherited tefillin, or a pair that has sat in a drawer for years, should always be checked before they are worn.

A few situations call for a check sooner than the calendar would suggest: a mezuzah on an exterior doorway exposed to sun and rain, a scroll that has been through a move, a home that has had water damage, or any case that was opened and resealed by someone other than a sofer. If you are unsure, ask us. We would rather look at it than guess.

If you are newer 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 problem: physical deterioration and writing defects.

Physical deterioration is what time does to parchment. Cracked or faded letters, ink flaking away from the klaf, water staining, wear along the fold lines where the scroll has been rolled and unrolled. This is the most common thing we find, and it is why the schedule exists at all.

Writing defects are what a careful reading catches: a missing letter, two letters touching where they must stay separate, improper spacing between words, or a letter whose shape no longer meets the halachic standard for its form. Some of these were present from the day the scroll was written. Others develop as ink degrades and a letter loses the stroke that distinguished it.

On tefillin, the batim and retzuot are examined as well: squareness of the boxes, straps that are fully black on the outside and of proper width, and stitching intact with kosher sinew, called giddin. Many sofrim check only the scrolls inside. It is worth insisting on a check that covers all three components, and that is what we do.

Computer Checking, and Its Limits

Modern checking adds a second safeguard. The scroll is scanned and compared letter by letter against the exact required text, which is extraordinarily good at catching a missing letter, an extra letter, or a swapped letter that even careful human reading can pass over. The eye is very good at seeing what it expects to see.

But a computer cannot rule on whether a letter's form is halachically valid. It can tell you a letter is there. It cannot tell you the letter is a proper one. That judgment belongs to a trained magiah, and it always will.

That is why our standard is both, never one or the other. Every scroll we sell is computer-checked letter by letter, examined by a magiah, and reviewed by our in-house Torah scribe here in Los Angeles. You can 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

People are often surprised that a defect cannot just be corrected. Two rules of STaM writing decide whether a flaw is repairable:

• Shelo k'sidran, written in order: mezuzahs and tefillin must be written in sequence, first letter to last. If an earlier letter turns out to be invalid after later letters were already written, it cannot simply be rewritten in place, because the order would be broken. This is why some defects cannot be economically repaired at all.
• Chok tochot, no carving: letters must be written, not formed by scraping ink away to reveal a shape. A flawed letter can sometimes be completed by adding ink, and 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 so much. Every handwritten sofer STaM scroll we sell is checked this way before it ships.

What Happens If a Scroll Is Found Pasul

We tell you before we do anything. You will hear from us with what was found, whether it can be repaired, and what we would recommend, and nothing gets decided without you. If the scroll can be fixed, we will tell you what that involves. If it cannot, we will help you choose a replacement from our Kosher Mezuzah Scrolls, and we will make sure the size matches the case you already own.

A scroll that is found pasul is not a failure on your part. It is exactly what the check is for.

Tefillin Checking Costs More, Here Is Why

Tefillin checking follows all the same rules but involves considerably more labor. The batim have to be opened, the parshiyot removed and examined individually, and then everything reassembled and resewn with kosher giddin. That reassembly is skilled, time-intensive work, and doing it properly is not something to rush. That is why tefillin checking costs more than mezuzah checking.

If a pair turns out to be beyond repair, we can advise on a replacement from our Kosher Tefillin, matched to your minhag.

Having Your Scrolls Checked

Here is the whole process, start to finish:

1. Email service@mezuzahstore.com and tell us how many mezuzah scrolls or pairs of tefillin you are sending.
2. We send you prepaid shipping labels and simple packing instructions.
3. Your scrolls arrive at our Los Angeles workshop and are logged in by name.
4. Each one is computer-checked letter by letter and examined by a magiah.
5. We contact you with the results before anything is returned or repaired.
6. Everything is packed carefully and shipped back to you, at our cost.

Local customers are welcome to drop scrolls off in person rather than mailing them. Please contact us first so we know to expect you.

Mezuzah Store
1440 1/2 S Robertson Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90035
United States

Drop-off and pickup hours are Sunday 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Monday through Thursday 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and Friday 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. We are closed Saturday for Shabbat and on most Jewish holidays, which can extend turnaround slightly around those dates. Our website is open 24 hours a day, and you can email us any time.

While Your Doorposts Are Bare

Your doorposts will be empty for a few days anyway, so this is a natural moment to look at the cases themselves. A worn mezuzah case that has cracked in the sun, or one that never quite fit the scroll properly, is easy to replace while the scroll is already out.

If you are not sure which case fits which scroll, our mezuzah case size guide walks through the sizes and how they match. And if you are putting everything back up yourself afterward, our guide to putting up a mezuzah covers placement, height, and the blessing.

Questions We Hear Often

For more about mezuzahs, kosher scrolls, and tefillin, see our FAQ page. If you are new to all of this and want to start at the beginning, read what is a mezuzah. For how your order travels to you and back, see our shipping policy.

We stand behind every scroll we sell and every scroll we check. If something is not right, tell us, and we will make it right.