📋 Shiur Overview
Summary of Shiur — Chapter 6 of Hilchos Mezuzah (Rambam)
Introduction — What Chapter 6 Discusses
Chapter 6 is the second chapter that discusses mezuzah. The Rambam doesn’t speak here about the parchment (the parshah that one places on the door), but rather about the bayis — which houses are obligated in mezuzah, according to the verse “u’ksavsam al mezuzos beisecha.”
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Halachah 1 — Ten Conditions in a Bayis
The Rambam says: “Asarah tena’im yesh babayis, v’im chaser echad meihen patur min hamezuzah, v’eilu hein…” — and he lists ten conditions:
1. Shi’ur of 4 amos by 4 amos or more
2. Shtei mezuzos (two doorposts)
3. Mashkof (upper lintel)
4. Tikrah (roof)
5. Delasos (doors)
6. Govah hasha’ar asarah tefachim or more
7. Bayis chol (not a beis hakodesh)
8. Asuy lidiras adam
9. Asuy lidiras kavod
10. Asuy lidiras keva
Explanation:
The Rambam makes a list of ten conditions, and then goes through each one in detail.
Chiddushim and Explanations:
a) The source for the number “ten”: In the Mishnah it doesn’t say “asarah tena’im” — this is the Rambam’s own organization. It’s discussed whether the Rambam was mechadesh this himself or whether he had a source (from a Baraisa, Geonim, or earlier Rishonim like the Rif). Rav Rabinovitz is quoted that in Hilchos Mezuzah there are many halachos where we don’t know the Rambam’s source at all.
b) Chovas hadar, not chovas habayis: Mezuzah is a chovas hadar (an obligation on the person who lives there), not a chovas habayis. But nevertheless the Rambam speaks here about conditions of the bayis. The explanation: The person who lives there is obligated — but only if the bayis has the proper conditions. This is compared to a beged of four corners — one is not obligated to wear such a garment, but if one wears it, one needs tzitzis. Similarly: one is not obligated to live in such a house, but if one lives there, one needs a mezuzah.
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Halachah 2 — The Shi’ur of 4 Amos
The Rambam says: “V’im yesh bo kedei lerabei’a bo arba amos al arba amos — patur mimezuzah” (if one cannot square 4 by 4 amos).
Explanation:
The shi’ur of the house must be large enough to have 4 amos by 4 amos.
Chiddushim and Explanations:
a) Shitas haRambam — 4 amos meruba’os (area), not shape: The Rambam means that the shi’ur is sixteen square amos — the area of the house must be large enough that one could fit 4 by 4 amos. But it doesn’t have to be a square shape. Even a narrow house of 1 amah by 16 amos would according to the Rambam have the shi’ur. Even a round house — if the area is sufficient.
b) Machlokes with the Rosh: The Rosh argues with the Rambam. The Rosh holds that there must be somewhere in the house an area of 4 by 4 amos — not just the total area, but a place where one can actually live. A house of 1 amah by 16 amos, although it has the area, one cannot live there — therefore it’s patur. The Rosh doesn’t require specifically a square, but there must be somewhere a 4 by 4 area.
g) Nafka minah l’ma’aseh: Since it’s a machlokes Rishonim, the Acharonim say that one places a mezuzah without a berachah (safek berachos lehakel). Practical advice: Whoever is pressed for money should buy beautiful mezuzos for the main rooms, but for rooms that don’t have tzuras revi’is (or other doubts), one can save and buy cheaper mezuzos, since the obligation there is only d’Rabbanan or a safek.
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Halachah 3 — Achsadrah, Shtei Mezuzos, Patzimin, Amudim, Kipah
a) Achsadrah and Patzimin
The Rambam says: Achsadrah — “v’hu makom sheyesh lo shalosh kosalim v’tikrah al gabeihen” — peturah min hamezuzah. “Aval im yesh lo shnei patzimin b’ruach revi’is…”
Explanation: An achsadrah (a porch / open space with three walls and a roof) is patur from mezuzah, because it lacks the fourth wall — it doesn’t have two mezuzos (doorposts). If there are “patzimin” (supports/structural pieces) on the fourth side, it’s still patur.
Chiddushim:
a) What does “patzimin” mean: It’s not simply “amudim” (which hold something up), but rather some sort of design piece, a bit of structure that protrudes on the fourth side. The difference between a “patzim” and an “amud” is: an amud holds something up, but a patzim is only a decorative or structural support. The Rambam’s patzimin are either for beauty or they hold the roof.
b) Why is an achsadrah with patzimin patur: The Rambam’s reason is “shelo na’asu ela latikrah” — the patzimin aren’t there to make a door or a wall, but only to support the roof. If there were a piece of wall, it could be obligated in mezuzah — but since it’s only a support for the tikrah, it’s patur.
b) Bayis with Amudim Instead of Mezuzos
The Rambam: A bayis that has only amudim instead of mezuzos (doorposts), and the amudim are only there to hold the tikrah — “harei zu k’tavnis bayis” — it looks like a house, but one doesn’t place a mezuzah.
Explanation: Amudim that serve only as structural support for the roof are not “mezuzos” (doorposts of an entrance). There are no proper mezuzos, there’s no formal entrance, and therefore one is patur.
Chiddushim:
a) Difference between amudim and mezuzos: The Rambam makes a fundamental distinction — amudim that are made “leha’amid es hatikrah” are not the same as mezuzos (doorposts that define an entrance). Even when it looks like a house, if there are no formal mezuzos, the din is lacking. This is a chiddush — one can have a place that functions like a house, but without mezuzos (doorposts) there’s no obligation.
b) “Open space” concept: The Torah was given for people with a certain structure of house. Later architectural styles (open spaces with pillars) don’t fall into this din.
c) Practical nafka minah: If one has two rooms with a corridor that’s completely open on one side without mezuzos (doorposts), even with amudim, one doesn’t place a mezuzah.
d) Question if this is a “bayis”: Such an open structure with only amudim and a roof, where no one really lives — this is like an outdoor place with a roof against the sun. Therefore not only are mezuzos lacking, the entire “bayis” status is lacking.
c) Kipah (Arched Entrance)
The Rambam: “Bayis sheyesh lo mezuzah mikan umezuzah mikan, v’kipah k’min keshet lishtei mezuzos bimkom hamashkof — im yesh b’govah hamezuzos asarah tefachim o yoser, chayav b’mezuzah. V’im ein bo asarah, patur, she’ein zeh ela mashkof.”
Explanation: When an entrance has an arch instead of a straight mashkof, the straight doorposts (mezuzos) must be at least ten tefachim high. If not, the entire structure is considered only a mashkof without proper mezuzos.
Chiddushim:
a) Foundation that mezuzos and mashkof must be separate elements: By a kipah (arch) the entire structure is one rounded thing. The Rambam rules that one must identify a separate part that is “mezuzah” (straight sides) and a separate part that is “mashkof” (top). If the straight sides aren’t ten tefachim high, the entire arch is considered only a mashkof — “she’ein zeh ela mashkof.”
b) Interesting foundation: One must have separate mezuzos (doorposts) and a separate mashkof (upper lintel). By an arch that’s too low, they flow together and one cannot identify separate mezuzos.
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Halachah 4 — Bayis She’ein Lo Tikrah
The Rambam: “Bayis she’ein lo tikrah patur min hamezuzah.”
Explanation: A house without a roof is patur from mezuzah. The difference between “mashkof” (the upper beam of the door) and “tikrah” (the roof of the house) is clarified — both are separate conditions.
Chiddush — “Nir’eh li” of Rambam by half-covered: The Rambam says “yir’eh li” (a chiddush from himself) — if a room is partially covered (“miktzaso mekurah u’miktzaso eino mekurah”), it depends if the tikrah is keneged hapesach (opposite the entrance). If yes — when one enters, one enters into the covered part, and this is chayav b’mezuzah. If the covered part is not opposite the pesach, one enters into an open place, and it’s patur. The Rambam emphasizes that this is his own chiddush, which means it’s not explicit in Chazal.
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Halachah 5 — Delasos (Doors)
The Rambam: “U’ma’amidin hadelasos v’achar kach kov’im es hamezuzah.” In Halachah 1 it says explicitly: “Af al pi she’ein lo delasos” — one is obligated in mezuzah even without doors.
Explanation: Apparently a contradiction — Halachah 1 says one doesn’t need doors, and here it says one should first put up doors.
Chiddushim and Machlokes:
a) Shitas haRa’avad: The Ra’avad understands that the Gemara that says “ma’amidin hadelasos” speaks only in a specific case — when one has a mezuzah (doorpost) between two rooms, and one doesn’t know which side is “yemin hanichnas” (since one goes both directions). In such a case one places a door to determine which direction is the entrance (according to how the door opens — “heker tzir”). According to the Ra’avad there’s no general halachah that one needs doors.
b) Shitas haRambam — response to Chachmei Lunel: The Chachmei Lunel asked the Ra’avad’s question. The Rambam answered sharply: “Lo yistapek b’zeh chacham sheba’olam she’ein hachiuv taluy ela b’sha’ar bayis k’peshuto” — no sage in the world should doubt that the obligation depends on a “sha’ar” (gate) as its simple meaning. The verse says “al sha’ar beisecha” — “sha’ar” means a door/gate, and it’s simple that one needs delasos. The Rambam “didn’t even think” that one needs a Gemara for this — it’s stated in the verse.
c) The Rambam’s critique of “semichos baTalmud”: The Rambam argued against the Chachmei Lunel that they learn “semichos baTalmud” — because two halachos stand next to each other in the Gemara, they think one speaks about the other. The Rambam holds that this is not a legitimate method. [Note: Rav Chaim Brisker has a “whole Torah” that one can learn semichos in the Rambam, but here the Rambam means that he himself doesn’t learn from this.]
d) Difference between “sha’ar” and “pesach”: The Rambam understands that “sha’ar” (as in the verse) implies delasos, while “pesach” means only an opening. The Ra’avad and Chachmei Lunel thought that sha’ar/pesach are the same — an opening without doors.
e) “Af al pi she’ein lo delasos” — how does it fit? If the Rambam holds that sha’ar means delasos, how does it fit with Halachah 1 which says “af al pi she’ein lo delasos”? This isn’t fully resolved, but it’s indicated that the Rambam’s shitah needs further explanation.
f) Back to the amudim case: In the previous case of amudim (which is patur), there’s also no door. Therefore the petur is not only because mezuzos (doorposts) are lacking, but also because delasos are lacking.
Practical Nafka Minah — Arches in Houses:
Many people have in their houses an open passageway (arch) between kitchen and other rooms — with two pillars and a mashkof, but without delasos. According to the Rambam one should not make a berachah on such a mezuzah, even if one is machmir to place one. The olam is machmir to place a mezuzah, but according to the Rambam’s shitah one shouldn’t make a berachah.
Practical Advice for Sofrim:
If a sofer wants to make a chumrah and brings in expensive mezuzos, he must also have cheaper mezuzos. He should tell his customers that generally a person has several mezuzos that are only obligated mid’Rabbanan or only according to certain poskim — on those one can save.
[Digression: What does “mehudar mezuzah” mean?]
a) “Mehudar” is not so simple: “Mehudar” usually means a nicer kesav. But in practice it’s not clear that what one buys for $200 is better than what one buys for $100 — often the difference is only style, not halachic quality. Rabbanim speak of “levels” but it’s not true that it has to do with halachah.
b) Bedikah vs. mehudar: If among mehudar mezuzos there’s 1/1000 pasul, and among non-mehudar ones there’s 1/100 pasul — if a rav checks and it’s not pasul, you’re yotzei. The essence of a nice kesav is only relevant when one looks at it (like a Sefer Torah), but a mezuzah one hardly ever opens.
c) Story about the Rizhiner Rebbe: Someone made a coach for the Rizhiner Rebbe, and in the back (which one doesn’t see) he didn’t put in good merchandise. The Rebbe said: “By us the panim is like the achor” — one must also there where no one looks.
d) Sefer Torah vs. mezuzah regarding hiddur: A Sefer Torah certainly must be more mehudar. But by a mezuzah — which one hardly ever opens — the question is whether “zeh Keli v’anveihu” is relevant to something one will never look at.
e) An opinion that “nice kesav” is specifically not nice: Today’s “nice” sofrim write as if it’s printed — someone said he wants specifically to see that a person wrote it. In a Sefer Torah one can see the “moods” of the sofer — that’s the real beauty.
f) “Zeh Keli v’anveihu” on a safek obligation: One can say that the din of “zeh Keli v’anveihu” is only on a complete mitzvah. What one does according to only one posek (like placing mezuzah on an arch) — that itself is already a hiddur, one doesn’t need to add another hiddur on top of that.
[Digression: Trustworthiness of sofrim and chezkas kashrus]
a) Chezkas kashrus by buying mezuzos: If a person buys a mezuzah from someone who has chezkas kashrus, and he says “this is kosher” — even without a bedikah — he’s yotzei according to halachah, just as in all of life one relies on testimony.
b) What does “mehadrin” mean in this context: Mehadrin means a person who seeks a distinguished sofer with a nice kesav — this is beyond the din. But today “hiddur” also means control — that it’s gone through an expert, because mezuzos are made from other countries where one doesn’t know who wrote it.
c) Critique of “racism” in the sofrim world: Very often “a good sofer” means — from anshei shelomeinu, not from “a mountain in Shomron” or a “non-heimish Jew.” But that one can have greater yiras Shamayim. One may not invalidate other Jews’ chezkas kashrus without basis. Only when one has actually found that other sofrim don’t do kesivah lishmah, or the shirtut/sirtut is not according to law — then it’s a legitimate reason.
d) The essence of buying mezuzos: One takes a mezuzah from whoever writes mezuzos, just as one takes tzitzis from a store — what the merchant calls tzitzis, that’s tzitzis. Hashem doesn’t demand that you should know all information.
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Halachah 6 — Holy Places Are Exempt from Mezuzah
The Rambam: “Har haBayis, haleshachos, u’vatei knesiyos u’vatei midrashos, v’chol she’ar hamekamos she’ein bahen beis dirah — peturin, l’fi sheheim kodesh.”
Explanation: Holy places — Har HaBayis, leshachos, shuls, batei midrash — are patur from mezuzah because they are holy and not diras chol. The verse expounds “beis Hashem v’lo beis kodesh.”
Chiddushim:
a) Batei knesiyos shel kefarim: The Rambam brings a distinction: “Batei knesiyos shel kefarim she’ein orchim darim bahem — chayeves b’mezuzah, mipnei shekov’im bah beis dirah.” In smaller villages they used to sleep on the benches in the beis midrash — this makes it “half chol” and obligated in mezuzah. In cities (kerachim) one sometimes has a special beis dirah for guests or the gabbai — there is a mezuzah.
b) Practical nafka minah today: The reason we place a mezuzah in batei midrash today is because one eats there, one sleeps there, one uses it — but usually it’s l’chumrah without a berachah.
Gates of the Mikdash:
The Rambam: “Kol sha’arei haMikdash lo hayu lahem mezuzah, chutz misha’ar Nikanor, shehayah lifnim mimenu lishkas Parhedrin, v’hi haysah beis dirah l’Kohen Gadol b’shiv’as yemei perusho.”
Explanation: All gates of the Beis HaMikdash didn’t have a mezuzah, except Sha’ar Nikanor, because behind that gate was Lishkas Parhedrin where the Kohen Gadol lived seven days before Yom Kippur.
Chiddushim:
– It’s brought up that perhaps the whole year one didn’t need a mezuzah there, only erev Yom Kippur when the Kohen Gadol was separated.
– [Digression:] The Rema holds that mezuzah is a shomer from bad things (“yichanes sham va’avo acharav”), not just a mitzvah of dwelling — this is a different shitah from the Rambam.
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Halachah 7 — Beis HaTeven, Beis HaBakar, Beis HaEtzim, Beis HaOtzaros
The Rambam: “Beis hateven, u’veis habakar, u’veis ha’etzim, u’veis ha’otzaros — peturim min hamezuzah, shene’emar ‘beisecha’ — beisecha amarti lecha, prat l’eilu v’chayotzei bahen.”
Explanation: Barns, sheds, storages — places that are not batei diros — are patur from mezuzah. “Beisecha” means only your dwelling place.
Chiddushim:
a) “Dual use” — refes bakar shehanashim mekashtos bah: The Rambam: “Refes bakar shehanashim yoshvos umekashtos bah — chayeves b’mezuzah, sheharei yesh bah yichud l’diras adam.” A barn that’s also used as a place where women sit and adorn themselves — is obligated because it has a yichud l’diras adam.
b) Practical question — large walk-in closet: Apparently a walk-in closet is a “beis ha’otzaros” (storage) and patur. But if women dress there (mekashtos bah) — it could be it has a din of “yichud l’diras adam” and is obligated. Simply changing sometimes when someone is in the bathroom is not enough — it must be a fixed use for diras adam.
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Beis Sha’ar, Ginah, Chatzer
The Rambam: “Beis sha’ar… peturah min hamezuzah, mipnei she’einah meshamshe l’dirah.”
Explanation: A beis sha’ar (entryway to the courtyard), a garden — are patur because they don’t serve as dwelling.
Chiddush: The Rambam means even if they have a full mashkof — the fact that it’s only a garden and not a dwelling place makes it patur. This is a din in the bayis (the purpose of the place), not only in the form.
Sha’arei Chatzeiros, Mevo’os, Medinos:
The Rambam: “L’fichach, echad sha’arei chatzeiros, v’echad sha’arei mevo’os, v’echad sha’arei medinos va’ayaros — kulan chayavin b’mezuzah.”
Explanation: Every gate that leads to a dwelling — chatzeiros (which have houses), mevo’os (which have chatzeiros), cities — is obligated in mezuzah.
Chiddush: This explains the previous din that a garden is patur — this speaks of a garden that doesn’t lead to any dwelling (a garden among gardens). But a garden that leads to a house would be obligated as a gate.
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Diras Kavod
The Rambam: “L’fichach, beis hakisei, u’veis hamerchotz, u’veis hat’vilah, u’veis haBurski, v’yotzei bahen — peturah min hamezuzah, l’fi she’einan meshamshos l’diras kavod.”
Explanation: A bathroom, mikveh, bathhouse, leather factory (Burski) — are patur because they don’t serve as a dignified dwelling.
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Diras Keva — Sukkas Yotzrim
The Rambam: “Sukas yotzrim — hachitzonah peturah min hamezuzah”
Explanation: A yotzer (artisan who makes pottery) has two parts of his sukkah/booth — the outer part (chitzonah) is patur from mezuzah, but the inner part (penimis) is obligated.
Chiddushim:
a) Difference between chitzonah and penimis: In the outer part the yotzer only puts out his wares for sale — this is like a store/shop. But in the innermost part he does his work and lives there — this is his private dwelling. This is compared to today’s times where the front is a store and the back is the private house.
b) Question: A sha’ar tzidah is a fixed thing and obligated b’mezuzah — why is the chitzonah patur? Answer (derech haShulchan): The chitzonah is not a fixed place, it’s a little sukkah that’s not a building, one uses it only when one needs space, at night it’s empty — people don’t live there, it’s only for merchandise. This is compared to booths at boardwalks or expos.
c) Chanuyos shebashvakim — market booths are also patur from mezuzah for the same reason.
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Halachah 7 — Bayis Sheyesh Lo Pesachim Harbeh, Chadarim, Pesach Bein Bayis La’aliyah
The Rambam: “Bayis sheyesh lo pesachim harbeh, af al pi she’ein ragil latzeis v’lavo ela b’pesach echad meihen — kulan chayavin b’mezuzah. Pesach shebein bayis la’aliyah chayav b’mezuzah. Cheder shebabayis, afilu cheder b’cheder — chayav la’asos mezuzah, hasha’ar cheder hapenimiy v’hasha’ar cheder hachitzon v’hasha’ar habayis, shekhulan meshamshin l’dirah uk’vu’in.”
Explanation: A house with many doors — even if one uses only one — each door needs a mezuzah. Internal doors between floors, between rooms, even a room inside a room — all need mezuzah.
Chiddush: The rule: As long as it’s not one of the ten exempt things, it’s obligated b’mezuzah. One doesn’t say that only the bedroom or dining room or the main door needs mezuzah — all doors need it. The reason: shekhulan meshamshin l’dirah uk’vu’in.
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Halachah 7 (continued) — Pesach Beis HaKnesses U’Veis HaMidrash
The Rambam: “Pesach shel beis haknesses u’veis hamidrash — patur. Aval pesach shebein beis hamidrash l’veiso — im ragil latzeis v’lavo bo, chayav b’mezuzah, v’im lav, patur.”
Explanation: A shul/beis midrash itself is patur from mezuzah. But if someone has a door from his house to the beis midrash — it depends if he uses it regularly.
Chiddushim:
a) Source: Rav Huna had a door from his house to the beis midrash, and the Gemara says he was accustomed to make (mezuzah) there. Rav Huna was Rosh Yeshivah — it was already an old custom that the Rosh Yeshivah lives next to the beis midrash.
b) Chiddush in the reasoning: If the person doesn’t use the door, it’s a pesach beis hamidrash which is patur. If he uses it, it’s like his own door and obligated b’mezuzah. The beis midrash itself always remains patur — even the main entrance where everyone comes in.
c) Practical point: Who has a door to the beis midrash? Only the gabbai, the Rosh Yeshivah, or similar. It’s mentioned that it’s a kavod beis hamidrash that one should enter from the front door, not from a private side door.
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Halachah 8 — Pesach Shebein Shnei Batim — Tzir HaDeles
The Rambam: “Pesach shebein shnei batim — molich u’mevi retzu’ah shel deles, makom shehatzir nir’eh mimenu” (there one places the mezuzah).
Explanation: When a door is between two houses (two partners), one must determine whose door it is — one looks where the tzir (hinge) is visible.
Chiddushim:
a) What does “tzir” mean? Tzir means the hinge — the place where the door turns.
b) Rashi in Menachos explains: The house to which the door is closer — that means, the door is part of that house, that house is more important, and the other person “grabs on.”
c) The Rambam doesn’t bring “right side” — he only speaks of “makom shehatzir nir’eh mimenu” — this means the important side.
d) Practical halachah: The room that the door opens into — that room is the main one. When one opens a door, one can go in or out — there where it goes in, that one is the main one, and one places the mezuzah on the right side of that house. From that side one can see the hinge because the door opens to that side.
e) “Nir’eh heimenu” — not entirely clear what it means exactly. There’s a machlokes haPoskim with various explanations about this.
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Halachah 8 (continued) — Place of Placing the Mezuzah
The Rambam: “Samuch lachalal hapesach, b’tefach hasamuch lachutz. Bischilus shelisho ha’elyon shel govah hasha’ar. V’im keva’ah l’ma’alah mizeh — kasher, u’vilvad sheyehei rachok min hamashkof tefach.”
Explanation: One places the mezuzah in the chalal of the door, in the tefach that’s close to outside. One divides the height of the door into three, and places it at the beginning of the upper third. If one placed it higher — kosher, as long as it remains a tefach away from the mashkof.
Chiddushim:
a) “B’tefach hasamuch lachutz” — this fits with what was learned earlier, that if one embeds it more than a tefach it’s pasul (because it’s too far from outside).
b) B’dieved one can place higher than the upper third, as long as it’s a tefach away from the mashkof.
c) Yemin hanichnas: One places it on yemin hanichnas labayis. If one placed it on the left — pesulah.
d) Beis hashutafin (a house of partners) is also obligated b’mezuzah.
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Acharis Davar / Ne’ilah — The Matter of Mezuzah
**The Rambam: “Chayav adam lehizaher b’mezuzah, mipnei shehi chovas hakol tamid. V’chol zman sheyichanes v’yetzei yifga b’yichud shemo shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu, v’yizkor ahavaso, v’ya’or mishnaso v’shegiyosav b’havlei hazman, v’yeida she’
The Rambam: “Chayav adam lehizaher b’mezuzah, mipnei shehi chovas hakol tamid. V’chol zman sheyichanes v’yetzei yifga b’yichud shemo shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu, v’yizkor ahavaso, v’ya’or mishnaso v’shegiyosav b’havlei hazman, v’yeida she’ein sham davar ha’omeid l’olam ul’olmei olamim ela yedi’as Tzur HaOlam.”
Explanation:
A person must be careful with mezuzah because it’s a constant obligation — more than tefillin or Krias Shema, which have specific times. The mezuzah lies there constantly. Every time one enters or exits one encounters the yichud Hashem, one remembers the love of Hashem, one awakens from the sleep of the vanities of time, and one recognizes that nothing stands forever except knowledge of the Rock of the World.
Chiddushim and Explanations:
a) Mezuzah is the most “constant” reminder: “Chayav adam lehizaher” doesn’t just mean to guard, but to “shine with it” (lashon zohar). The main chiddush: Mezuzah is more constant than tefillin and Krias Shema — by those there are exemptions (sick, on the road, etc.), but mezuzah lies constantly. “Shivisi Hashem l’negdi samid” — the more constant, the more it’s the purpose and end of love.
b) The “circular” aspect of Krias Shema and mezuzah: A fascinating circularity: Krias Shema is important, one says it every day. Besides that one places it (the text of Krias Shema) on the head in tefillin so that one should remember it. And when one has it on the head there’s a mitzvah to say it (as the Rambam said earlier that when someone puts on tefillin and doesn’t say Krias Shema, one says it again). And the same Krias Shema one also places on the door in the mezuzah, and when one sees it one remembers Krias Shema. That is: Krias Shema → tefillin → reminds of Krias Shema → mezuzah → reminds of Krias Shema. But a Jew entering the house doesn’t actually say Krias Shema — he remembers Hashem.
c) Mezuzah on the mashkof — symbolic meaning: The mashkof is a strong, solid place of the house — there where one places the doors. The person built a strong house. Specifically there one places a mezuzah that says: “Ein sham davar ha’omeid l’olam ul’olmei olamim ela yedi’as Tzur HaOlam.” The person prepares to do business, he lives in his house, he thinks he’ll live forever — but the mezuzah reminds him that only knowledge of Hashem remains forever, everything else passes. This is a “wake-up” similar to tekias shofar — mezuzah is a mini tekias shofar that a Jew has every day.
d) “Ahavaso” — whose love? The Rambam says “v’yizkor ahavaso.” This doesn’t mean that Hashem loves him (that’s a “Chassidic interpretation”), but that the person should remember that he loves Hashem — he should remember his own ahavas Hashem, not just the mitzvah of love, but the love itself.
e) Comparison between mezuzah and tefillin — two levels: By tefillin the Rambam also said that it reminds the person, but there it’s a higher level: “Mefaneh libo l’divrei…” — the person is engaged in Torah, he becomes humble and God-fearing. By mezuzah we speak of a person who enters and exits, he’s not in a state of being engaged in Torah — one awakens him from sleep and errors. Tefillin is what a tzaddik, a ben Torah does; mezuzah is for the simple Jew who needs a reminder. This is a difference in levels.
f) The Rambam’s shitah vs. Ramban — reminder vs. proclamation: The Rambam is consistent that all mitzvos (tefillin, mezuzah, tzitzis, shofar) are to remind the person — it awakens the person from his sleep. The Ramban, l’havdil, holds that there’s also a matter of “proclamation” — a demonstration to the world, like “v’ra’u kol amei ha’aretz ki sheim Hashem nikra alecha v’yar’u mimecha.” The Rambam views it as an internal thing (the person’s own awakening), the Ramban views it as also an external proclamation.
g) “Choneh malach Hashem saviv lirei’av vayechaltzeim” — the Rambam’s interpretation of “malachim”: The Gemara brings the verse “Choneh malach Hashem saviv lirei’av vayechaltzeim” in connection with mezuzah, tzitzis, tefillin. The Rambam explains: What are the “malachim” that guard the person? These are the reminders — the tefillin, mezuzah, tzitzis themselves. They are the “malachim” that surround the person and guard him from sinning (shelo yecheta), not from harmful spirits in a physical sense. This fits with the Gemara’s own language “b’chizuk shelo yecheta, shene’emar v’hachut hameshulash lo bimheirah yinasek.”
Chiddush within the chiddush: The Rambam didn’t read into the Gemara — the Gemara itself is a source for the Rambam. Because “Choneh malach Hashem saviv lirei’av vayechaltzeim” fits exactly with the Rambam’s Torah that it’s protection from sin, not from harmful spirits. This is clear from the Gemara’s context.
h) The Rambam vs. Mekubalim — protection from sin vs. protection from harmful spirits: According to Mekubalim, mezuzah is protection from harmful spirits/klipos — “v’ra’u kol amei ha’aretz ki sheim Hashem nikra alecha v’yar’u mimecha.” The Rambam holds that it’s all to remind the person. But the Rambam did give a place for “malachim” — he just interpreted them differently. One cannot say it’s only segulos. It’s also suggested that “klipos” are perhaps the same things that cause sin — that is, even according to Mekubalim one can say that protection from klipos = protection from sin, and it’s not so far from the Rambam.
i) “V’hachut hameshulash” — three mitzvos: The Gemara says “b’chizuk shelo yecheta, shene’emar v’hachut hameshulash lo bimheirah yinasek.” The Rambam understood that “chazakah” means that the three things together (mezuzah, tefillin, tzitzis) are strong. But he doesn’t bring the verse explicitly.
—
Conclusion — Structure of the Chapter and Malachim as Reminders
The chavrusa discussion ends with a summary of the structure of the chapter:
The chapter begins with asarah devarim (ten conditions in the bayis) and ends with malachim.
Chiddushim:
a) Malachim as reminders to the masses: The Rambam placed malachim at the end of the chapter, and he says that the malachim themselves are also “reminders to the masses” — they remind the person of good things. This gives a place for malachim to be interesting even according to the Rambam’s rational approach.
b) Not just revelation — a deeper point: One cannot say that the malachim are merely a “revelation” (an external discovery). A Mekubal will say that all these things (tzitzis, tefillin, mezuzah) are “external things” — protection against klipos. But what are klipos? Klipos are the same forces that bring to sin, that bring to bad thoughts. And Krias Shema, which is a “sword of two edges” that kills harmful spirits — also kills the bad thoughts. According to the Rambam’s approach, this is the same matter: The “harmful spirits” and “klipos” are in truth the bad thoughts and yetzer hara, and the protection against them is through reminders of mitzvos.
c) Structure of the chapter — ten malachim: The chapter has a beautiful structure: asarah devarim at the beginning, malachim at the end. The reminders are: tzitzis (1), tefillin shel yad + tefillin shel rosh (2), mezuzah (1) — together four reminders. Together with the malachim, an image of “ten malachim” forms.
d) Each section of the shiur is a malach: When Torah enters the head, one thinks it, one remembers it — and that itself is a malach, a force that guards the person.
📝 Full Transcript
Chapter 6, Laws of Mezuzah — Ten Conditions for a House Obligated in Mezuzah
Introduction — Topic of the Chapter
R’ Yoel:
Chapter 6, Laws of Mezuzah, Chapter 6, the second chapter that speaks about mezuzah.
I want to preface that the mitzvah of mezuzah is that one takes the parsha from the Torah and places it on a beautiful large doorpost, the pillar of Torah, the place upon which one can hang a mezuzah. So our pillar of Torah, upon such a great place where we hang the mezuzah of today’s shiur, is our friend R’ Yoel, umimenu yilmedu vechen ya’asu (from him they will learn and so they will do).
Now we’re going to learn the laws of mezuzah, not the parchment that we also call mezuzah, not the amulet, the parchment, the parsha that one places on the door, but rather the mezuzah, the doorpost of the door. The house, actually the house, the entire house, and the Rambam is going to enumerate what kind of house is obligated in mezuzah, “u’sematam al mezuzot beitecha” (and you shall place them on the doorposts of your house), what kind of house is obligated in mezuzah.
And the Rambam wanted to help us, so he looked through all the Mishnayot and all the laws that he saw, in Sifra, Sifrei, Yerushalmi, everything he learned, and he saw wonders of wonders that it comes out to ten. He does love the number ten, ten angels and ten different things, ten types of blood. Perfect, he tells us the laws.
Chavruta:
No, R’ Yitzchak said, because it doesn’t say in the Mishnah “asarah tena’im” (ten conditions). How do you know that the Rambam made up the number? Because the Rambam isn’t the first, there already was a Rif or some earlier sefer that wrote. Before the Rambam there were also certain Rishonim who wrote on certain laws. We know, but we don’t know when. Usually when the Rambam says a number it’s his own number, because the Gemara says fewer numbers.
R’ Yoel:
Yes, but it could be that the Rambam had some source. There are many laws in the Laws of Mezuzah where we don’t know the source at all, so says Rav Rabinovitz. It could be that the Rambam did have some source from a Baraita or something, or from the Geonim, it could be that it wasn’t stated in the list. We don’t know exactly the intention. It could be the Rambam innovated it.
Law 1 — Ten Conditions in a House
R’ Yoel:
There are already ten conditions, “There are ten conditions in a house”. A house must have ten conditions, so if it has the conditions it’s an important dwelling, and leave it not.
Because mezuzah is not an obligation of the house, it’s an obligation of the dweller, as we learned earlier. But we’re speaking here about conditions of the house. Which house, the one who lives there and must make a mezuzah. It obligates the person.
Chavruta:
Right. It’s interesting, the person is also not obligated to have such a type of house that has a mezuzah.
R’ Yoel:
Yes, if he has such a house. Obligation of the dweller, it means it’s a recommendation that a person should live and he should have a mezuzah, if one places a doorpost. When a person establishes himself to live, he should… the one with the obligation of dwelling, obligation of the object.
Chavruta:
Yes, obligation of the dweller, obligation of the object in that type of house, it should be there. If he only placed it in one place, in the obligation a second. It’s not any…
R’ Yoel:
Yes, what’s the problem? Just like a garment of four corners. Whoever lives there must put on a mezuzah, that means put it on. A garment lying on the shelf doesn’t need any mezuzah. What does a house need? If you live in such a house, you must place the mezuzah. There’s no obligation at all to live in such a house. But if someone doesn’t live in such a house, he doesn’t have such a house, he’s exempt.
The Ten Conditions
R’ Yoel:
“And these are nine conditions, one of them is exempt from mezuzah. And these are:” That the house we’re speaking of, “should have a measure of four amot by four amot or more”. It should be at least, this number you made, or did the Rambam enumerate them all equally?
Chavruta:
Yes yes, these are the Rambam’s ten. Ten, ten, this is the Rambam, all in the Rambam’s language.
R’ Yoel:
Yes, says the Rambam, he says them all here, he says here briefly, and afterwards he’s going to explain certain of them more. All of them. The first is “should have a measure of four amot by four amot or more”. A very small little house isn’t called a house.
Second thing, “that it should have two mezuzot”. Because a law that says mezuzot, mezuzot is stated in plural, but an exact mezuzot means two mezuzot.
Chavruta:
Or. They go one of them with all these things meaning.
R’ Yoel:
Yes, certainly. “And it should have a lintel”. The third thing is there should be a lintel. “And it should have a ceiling”, meaning a roof. A fourth thing, a fourth thing is there should be a roof. “That it should have a ceiling”. It means on the house, not on the lintel. The lintel, the lintel is already the roof of the door. It should be a room, that should serve the room more. It should have a roof, not all rooms should have a roof, it’s laws of the house. It means a house.
Chavruta:
Yes, good.
R’ Yoel:
“That it should have a ceiling”, it should have a roof, “that it should have doors”, it should have doors. This is also indeed a novelty, that the Rambam distinguishes on this, that it must have complete doors. Does this mean the doors make the mezuzah for a special place or what? The Jews make that it should be a house, that the house…
Chavruta:
No, the Jews which it’s a law in the mezuzah, that’s not. But the Rambam says on everything a house. I can’t help it.
R’ Yoel:
Yes, but I’m saying this, the mezuzah has a law that the mezuzah is.
Chavruta:
No, a house has such a type of door. Understand? It’s not that the door makes the mezuzah for a… I don’t know.
R’ Yoel:
Okay. The Rambam frames everything as laws of the house.
Chavruta:
Yes.
R’ Yoel:
“And the height of the gate should be ten tefachim or more”. The gate should be ten tefachim or more. “And it should be a secular house”. It shouldn’t be a holy house, meaning a public one. Secular is actually secular. Secular, not holy.
Chavruta:
Okay.
R’ Yoel:
“And it should be made for human dwelling”. It should be made for a person to live in. So this also excludes a synagogue or a study hall, or such a type of thing, or a… I don’t know, a warehouse. We’ll find what all this excludes.
“And it should be made for honorable dwelling”. One lives there in an honorable manner, it’s an honorable dwelling. “And it should be made for permanent dwelling”. It’s made for permanent dwelling to live permanently. So this is actually an opening, an opening that we learned earlier, yes?
Because if you’ll see, the Rambam is going to say clearly each thing what the practical difference is. On each law the Rambam is now going to explain from where he takes it and so forth. The Rav already explained this here, but the actual place of the learning of all these things is later in the commentaries. The Rambam simply made a list. Now he’s going to go through the entire list and explain each one of them what they mean.
Law 2 — The Measure of Four Amot by Four Amot
R’ Yoel:
Okay. So the first law we learned that a house in order to be obligated in mezuzah must have four amot, says the Rambam. Therefore, “And if it has enough to square in it four amot by four amot, it’s exempt from mezuzah”. If it doesn’t have four by four amot. What happens if it’s longer? It has six amot by three amot and the like. Says the Rambam, one must be able to square a…
The definition that it must have four amot doesn’t mean that one must have a wall, doesn’t mean that one must have a… how do you say… four amot squared. One doesn’t have to have two walls of four amot, four by four. It can be what’s called sixteen square amot.
Chavruta:
Yes, it can be…
R’ Yoel:
A practical difference is, it can be even if it’s round, it will still have the same, it’s unnecessary to say, “its length is greater than its width”. Even if it’s very narrow, for example it’s only one amah narrow but it’s ten amot long, you already have four amot, and here it’s not ten, here it’s sixteen, then there is four by four amot. In any case, four by four amot is obligated in mezuzah, this is the holy opinion of the Rambam. It’s how big it is, not how the house is built, but how big the house is.
Dispute of the Rambam and the Rosh
R’ Yoel:
The Rambam, the law is here that they argue with him on many things, that you who argue on the four by four.
Chavruta:
Yes, the holy Rosh disagrees, the Rosh says that… must it be bigger?
R’ Yoel:
Not bigger, it’s yes a law in the shape. The Rosh says that a house that is very narrow, for example it’s one amah by sixteen amot, which certainly has four amot squared, but one can’t live in such a house. Therefore today the Rosh holds that it must yes be four amot somewhere, it doesn’t have to be square, it can be rectangular, but there must be somewhere four by four area in the house, because if not it means too small, says the holy Rosh. Therefore, if it’s a dispute of Rishonim, the Acharonim say that one must make without a blessing because it’s a doubt.
And I also tell people who ask me in the laws, if he’s pressed for money, I tell him, buy beautiful wonderful mezuzot, that, but you can save yourself the three mezuzot, like the rooms that don’t have the square shape or other laws, you can spend less on the mezuzot because it’s rabbinic. Well, rabbinic will help greatly, one can be meticulous entirely, but I’m just saying, without a blessing. I’m explaining to you, we’re going further.
Law 3 — Achsadra and Two Mezuzot
R’ Yoel:
The next law is… this is the Rambam’s law, the first law, four amot. Now there’s another law that we learned, that the mezuzah must have two mezuzot, the walls. The Rambam says achsadra…
Chavruta:
Yes.
R’ Yoel:
How do you translate in Yiddish the word achsadra? Such a porch, such a… open space. The Rambam is going to translate, “And it is a place that has three walls and a ceiling above them, but if it has two columns on the fourth side, even more…” Columns means pillars, such pieces that stick in. It’s not a full wall, that means you remain with it has only mezuzot. It doesn’t have any…
Chavruta:
Yes, a wall it certainly doesn’t have.
R’ Yoel:
It also doesn’t have any mezuzot, it has large poles, such pieces, something such pieces that come up. Pillars. I think it’s a funny word, petzim. I think it means pillar, you can write pillars. Petzim means something such a type of thing, something such a design piece, something such a thing, not any… it’s not a thing that closes the… it closes a bit the fourth side, understand? It’s something such a thing.
Discussion: What Does “Petzimim” Mean
Chavruta:
The word “pole” isn’t a good word, because you want to explain a pillar, you don’t want to explain a “pole”. You want to be able to write pillars. And therefore I think that petzim, could be precisely petzim is something such a pillar, something such a thing that isn’t made for it. And because that Tanna wrote petzim, I don’t know, the Rambam always translates gathering, he can use another word. I want to ask you in the Mishnah, why didn’t the Mishnah use the word pillars? It’s missing suddenly, as there’s a certain expression for… it’s indeed a name for such a thing.
R’ Yoel:
Yes, it’s missing, it doesn’t just say expressions in the world. So? I don’t know, I prefer…
Chavruta:
The word achsadra is a Hebrew language word, but it’s something a… usual, Alexandria, I don’t know what.
R’ Yoel:
That’s what the history thinks, it’s very good the history, a pillar is very good. Petzim are types of pillars from that achsadra of revenue. But petzim you know yes, if it’s a pillar you know how to say. Just to say it’s a word in the world, it doesn’t mean… a pillar is a thing that holds something up. This isn’t a pillar, this is just something a design piece. A pillar isn’t a “pole” that holds something.
Chavruta:
Yes, you think that it holds something the roof, that has precisely a weight. But the pillar is simply design.
R’ Yoel:
It’s something a type of little wall, in short.
Chavruta:
Ah, it holds yes, he tells me the explanation.
Exempt from Mezuzah
R’ Yoel:
“Exempt from mezuzah”, just nonsense. “Exempt from mezuzah”, why? “Because they were only made for the ceiling”, they’re not there to make a door, but they’re there to hold the roof. He says, there are three walls with a roof, the roof needs support on the fourth side. Because of that he took there “poles”, not that there should also be a piece of wall. If that would have been a piece of wall, that could have been obligated in mezuzah. But he tells you no, this isn’t a wall, it’s only a way to hold the roof. And not like any ceiling there is by the sides.
Chavruta:
And life ceiling is pillar not with that I’m still good. Okay. Um… I made.
R’ Yoel:
And life ceiling, same thing, if it doesn’t have a ceiling at all. They, the word is… mezuzah, it’s only a luck, it’s part mezuzah. It must be a mezuzah means a doorpost. A doorpost? Doorpost is the doorpost.
Law 3 (Continued) — A House That Has Pillars Without Mezuzot
Speaker 1:
A pillar is a thing that holds something up. This isn’t a pillar. This is just to say “it’s one piece”.
Speaker 2:
Ah, you know what? Pillars, not a pole that holds something.
Speaker 1:
Yes, but this actually holds something, it holds the roof.
Speaker 2:
You say that it had a roof, but the pillars aren’t the thing. It has a type of little wall.
Speaker 1:
In short, ah, it holds yes, it tells me explicitly. “Exempt from mezuzah” – just nonsense. “Exempt from mezuzah” is this. Why? “Because they stand there to support the ceiling”, they’re not there to make a door, but to hold the roof.
You said that it has three walls with a roof. The roof needs more support on the fourth side, because of that he took there poles. Not that there should also be a piece of wall. If not it would have been a piece of wall, it could have been obligated in mezuzah. But you say that no, this isn’t a wall, it’s only a way to hold the roof. “And one doesn’t fulfill with them the mezuzah”. Therefore he fulfills with the ceiling, but not with the mezuzah.
“And similarly a ceiling that has no lintel at all” – that word is mezuzah, and they placed two mezuzot. It must be a mezuzah, which means a doorpost. Doorpost is the lower doorpost. How do you call the side doorpost? Mezuzah.
In short, the same thing, if it doesn’t have a lintel at all, “but rather stands on pillars from here and from there”, just a roof. “Behold this is like the form of a house”. That looks like a little house. What does “like the form of a house” mean? What’s the explanation? It’s not an “outside space” that has just pillars, that has just face. It’s a house. There’s a place where one feels that there one walks in. But it doesn’t have mezuzot. “Whatever” the case is, one didn’t even place something a string or something such a piece of partition.
“But rather the pillars are made to support the ceiling”. One can only place on walls of an entrance. If there isn’t any entrance, even if technically there are only three places where one can enter because just there are poles, that’s what the Rambam says, but none of them is an official entrance. It’s interesting, but this is the law of mezuzah. There isn’t any entrance, there isn’t any wall at all. Where are there pillars for mezuzah?
Discussion: Was the Torah Given for a Specific House Structure
Speaker 1:
The Torah was given for people who had a certain little house. Later came architects and they said that one can make such an open type this is an open space idea with pillars. He said, what do I care? There’s a house, a place where one goes into the house between the three pillars. Let me just place on the three pillars. He says, no, the law of mezuzot is missing. Interesting.
Speaker 2:
This is what you said that one must have mezuzot. There’s no mezuzah, I don’t understand. I have a porch, what does it have with mezuzah?
Speaker 1:
No, but the question is clearer than you say. Chazal don’t want one should just place mezuzot on places that isn’t… a Yoel is the place where he goes in. At least he should place a mezuzah on his head if something happens. I mean, a mezuzah is a thing, one places a mezuzah on a house.
But this is the place where one goes into the type of house.
Speaker 2:
No one lives in the house.
Speaker 1:
One doesn’t live in the house, it’s not a house.
Speaker 2:
I don’t understand what you mean.
Speaker 1:
Yes, but one doesn’t live, how can one live in such an empty warehouse there? There’s there something a nice area where one can play on the ball. This is a place where one goes with good weather.
Speaker 2:
No, one doesn’t live in such a house. That must mean that there isn’t any house.
Speaker 1:
Very good, you play outside also. One places such a roof so the sun shouldn’t shine.
Speaker 2:
No, not a house.
Speaker 1:
No, I think that doorposts are missing, it’s a law.
Speaker 2:
Very good, there’s missing indeed like the form of a house and everything.
Speaker 1:
Like the form of a house, I’m asking you about mezuzot, not what it is.
Speaker 2:
Translation
There are no doorposts at all, but it only has pillars. Where is the house? The pillars are missing.
Speaker 1:
What do you mean, it looks like a sukkah?
Speaker 2:
He says perhaps one puts some piece… He’s not talking about a lintel.
Speaker 1:
He says the Rambam, “A house that has doorposts”. Okay, up until now that in the laws of mezuzah there must be doorposts, very important. If it’s completely empty, there’s no threshold at all, this is also relevant at home, if people have two rooms and a corridor, completely open from one side, there are no doorposts. Yes, even if there are walls, it’s not called a mezuzah, and therefore one doesn’t put one there. That’s what it says here in the Rambam, I think.
Speaker 2:
According to the Rambam there are doorposts, we’ll see soon.
Speaker 1:
That’s an argument. We’ll soon get into this, but until then we’ll… Obviously, the pillars, the thing you said about the pillars, even if you want to say it’s also a design of a door, such a place with two pillars.
Speaker 2:
Okay, okay.
Speaker 1:
First of all, but now we’re talking about a mezuzah that’s only made to hold the roof.
Law 4 – Arch (Curved Entrance)
Speaker 2:
No, he says “A house that has a doorpost on one side and a doorpost on the other, and an arch like a bow for the two doorposts in place of the lintel”, is that so. “If the height of the doorposts is ten tefachim or more”, okay.
Speaker 1:
No, now we’re talking about other laws, right? There’s a law that one must have a lintel, there must be a “top”, a… what’s called a mashkof? The upper threshold, I don’t know what it’s called. The threshold from above. Now, it sometimes happens that a person has two doorposts, but it’s very low from above, it’s very low. It turns out that there aren’t ten tefachim from…
Speaker 2:
It’s not straight.
Speaker 1:
Exactly. There’s no mezuzah, there’s only a lintel, because it’s one round thing.
Speaker 2:
Ah, it’s one round thing.
Speaker 1:
But if there aren’t two doorposts either, it’s one long…
Speaker 2:
Now, “it seems to be”, there must be both a doorpost and a lintel.
Speaker 1:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
“If the height of the doorposts is ten tefachim or more”, if there are ten tefachim where it is indeed high, it’s still a mezuzah.
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
“It requires a mezuzah, but if it doesn’t have ten it’s exempt, because this is only a lintel”. If it’s less than ten it’s not called a lintel.
Speaker 1:
No, you can also say it doesn’t have a mezuzah, “I don’t know why he’s calling it” only a lintel.
Speaker 2:
True.
Speaker 1:
Do you understand my question?
Speaker 2:
Right.
Speaker 1:
“Interesting”.
Speaker 2:
It’s an interesting principle, yes.
Speaker 1:
What?
Speaker 2:
The main point is that the mezuzah isn’t high enough, not that the…
Speaker 1:
Therefore the both, it’s not both things, “I don’t know”.
Speaker 2:
Okay, a fourth law we learned that there must be a ceiling. Yes?
Law 5 – A House Without a Ceiling
Speaker 1:
“A house without a ceiling is exempt from mezuzah”.
Speaker 2:
“A house without a ceiling” is exempt. Ah, “a house without a ceiling” is exempt. Ah, we learned the fourth law that there must be a ceiling. Therefore it comes out, “a house without a ceiling”, there’s no roof, is exempt from mezuzah.
Speaker 1:
Well, good.
The Rambam’s Innovation – A House That Is Partially Covered
Speaker 2:
The Rambam says, what happens with a room that “is partially covered”, half a room has a roof, “and partially is not covered”? The Rambam says, “It seems to me”, it’s my position, “it appears to me”, it’s an innovation, the law wasn’t explained explicitly, an innovation. “It seems to me”, I think, says the holy Rambam, “that if there was a beam opposite the entrance”, if the roof is opposite the entrance, there is a roof, when one would enter there one enters into the covered part, it requires a mezuzah, because you have enough entrance that leads into a room. And that’s in the back, there’s no ceiling, it doesn’t make it out to be a room. One should be able to enter. If right after the entrance there isn’t, then it’s as if it’s open, he doesn’t enter into any room.
Speaker 1:
Aha, good.
Discussion: Whether One Must Have Doors
Speaker 2:
The Rambam says, “And one sets up the doors, and afterwards affixes the mezuzah”.
Speaker 1:
There’s the law that he said earlier, that there must be a door.
Speaker 2:
No, he said there must be doors, it’s interesting, he doesn’t rule on this matter. He doesn’t say here clearly that if it doesn’t have doors it’s invalid. It could be that there’s a law of doors in a place where there are doors. The Rambam doesn’t tell us clearly that it must have doors.
Speaker 1:
Huh?
Speaker 2:
What’s the proof? The arch communications, in that one can also manage to put in a door.
Speaker 1:
Ah, that could be.
Speaker 2:
I don’t know. I thought it’s a very small door, but it’s a regular door that doesn’t have the height of the doorpost of ten tefachim.
Speaker 1:
So, again, so what?
The Raavad’s Position – “Setting Up Doors” Only Refers to Recognizing the Hinge
Speaker 2:
It doesn’t have doors anyway. The Raavad asked a question. The Raavad said, what it says about doors only refers to recognizing the hinge, that it’s two houses, and one needs to know which way is only recognizable through… through doors. The Gemara says that one makes doors. The Raavad understood, that the law that if one makes a mezuzah one should first put doors, is stated in the Gemara. The Raavad understood that this refers to a case when it’s a mezuzah between two doors, a threshold between two rooms, sorry, the mezuzah must be placed on the right of the one entering, and one doesn’t know which way one enters, because it’s between two rooms and one goes both ways. He said one should put a door, and then the way the door opens, that’s the way one enters. So therefore one must first put a door.
But if so, the Raavad argues, there’s no law that one must put a door. If one has such a problem, one should put a door in order to know how to place the mezuzah.
Speaker 1:
That means you want to say that the Rambam himself wasn’t one hundred percent decided, but he said it in this manner, he wanted to leave it open that it’s not necessarily a reason to exempt if it doesn’t have a door.
Speaker 2:
So, so, the holy Rambam, but no, it’s clear that it’s not exempt from mezuzah. He said explicitly in the first law that “even though it doesn’t have doors”, it must have doors.
Speaker 1:
Explicitly, law 1.
Speaker 2:
“Even though it doesn’t have doors”. The holy Rambam himself…
Speaker 1:
No, he’s not saying about the essential law. Yes, he wants to understand, he wants to know whether one must put doors.
The Rambam’s Response to the Sages of Lunel – “Gate” Means Doors
Speaker 2:
The holy Rambam himself, someone asked a question, the sages of Lunel sent questions to the Rambam, asking difficulties on his laws, they asked the Raavad’s question. They asked that the Gemara doesn’t say that it must have doors, the Gemara only says that if one must have it in order to know which side to place the mezuzah. The Rambam answered, “What? Do you hold in one… There are two laws one with the other, and you’re expounding here juxtaposition in the Talmud, because the two laws are stated one next to the other means it’s referring to that?” No, says the Rambam, it says in the Torah…
Speaker 1:
No, he says one doesn’t learn juxtaposition in the Talmud. Very good. The Rambam doesn’t want one to learn juxtaposition in him. Very good, because Reb Chaim Brisker has a whole Torah that one can learn juxtaposition in the Rambam. No, sometimes one must learn, he only means to be a figure of speech, he means to say that he doesn’t learn from this.
Speaker 2:
He says, the Rambam, the Torah says that there must be a gate. Where does one place the mezuzah? On the gate. What does the gate mean? It means doors. The Rambam says, for the Rambam it was obvious, “No wise person in the world would doubt that the obligation depends only on the gate of the house in its simple meaning”. The Rambam says, the Rambam didn’t even think that a mezuzah comes on a door. Where then does one place a mezuzah? “On the gate of your house”. Where then does a mezuzah go? He doesn’t even need the Gemara to tell him that one needs a gate.
Speaker 1:
No, the question is, a gate is a place that doesn’t have a door.
Speaker 2:
Very good, that’s not a gate. The Rambam says, a door is an entrance and not a door. Doors is a condition in the word gate. Very good, if you think so, okay, because you and the Raavad and the sages of Lunel all thought so. But the Rambam simply thought that this requires a door, one almost doesn’t need a Gemara. Certainly, the Gemara speaks about the manner that he wanted to know which side to place, he gave good advice that one should first place the door.
Question: The Pillars Case and the Doors Law
Speaker 1:
But the pillars that you said earlier are invalid for another reason, because between pillars there’s also no door. Apparently, I really don’t understand this. Perhaps there we’re talking about where there is a door?
Speaker 2:
I don’t know. There’s no door there?
Speaker 1:
About this it’s… Okay, I’m asking you a good question. I already know, what does the holy Rambam say? And also to say that the house that has a doorpost, are we talking about a door still in the four by four? It’s exempt because it doesn’t have a lintel. It’s not exempt because it doesn’t have doors. What is the house that has a doorpost? The narrowness that we’re talking about here of a narrow week doesn’t have enough height for an average person. Now you’re asking questions in general why isn’t it, aren’t you asking with the stars.
Speaker 2:
No, but I’m saying, but doors certainly don’t come in there.
Speaker 1:
Okay, I can answer. Sometimes there’s a place where one must bend down, and there one doesn’t place a frame. I don’t see that as a question.
A puzzling question seems to me a better question, what’s the story with the exedra? But the many didn’t ask, the many love lectures.
Exempt When the Lintel or Doors Are Missing
Speaker 1: It’s exempt because it doesn’t have a lintel. How? It’s not exempt because it doesn’t have doors. Because you know now after the clothes doors. Simply what, we’re talking here about a door that doesn’t even have enough height for an average person. You’re asking questions in general why isn’t it exempt because it doesn’t have doors? But doors certainly don’t come in there. I can answer, sometimes there’s a place where one must bend down, there one doesn’t place a mezuzah. It has nothing to do with doors.
It seems to me a better question, what’s the story with the exedra? Pillars, yes. But the Rambam, not the Rambam, a responsum in other commentators, and the answer is that if we’re talking about such a type of door, one shouldn’t make a blessing according to the Rambam. I want to say, can one be lenient or can one make a blessing? At least one should be stringent according to the Rambam’s position not to make a blessing, even if there is a place. There are many times people have this yes many times, it’s divided between the kitchen and the… There are two pillars and it has a lintel. There are no doors there. So it sounds that what? No, good. Yes, that’s what it says in the…
So, that’s interesting. I mean that means something for us, that a scribe who wants to be stringent and he brings in more expensive mezuzot, must also have cheaper mezuzot. And say to his customers that generally a person has several mezuzot that are only obligated rabbinically or only according to certain poskim. On those one can really save the three hundred dollars and buy a cheaper mezuzah. No? I don’t know, the places, many people have this, and the public is stringent. But the whole law that you’re now being concerned about, it makes sense, as if I don’t know what it has to do with the law that a fence…
Digression: What Does a Beautiful Mezuzah Mean?
The Practice of “Mehudar” and Beautiful Script
Speaker 2: What does a beautiful mezuzah mean? I went to the mezuzah store recently. There isn’t, mehudar often means it’s a more beautiful script usually. And there’s a scribe who goes… There’s choice, I know. Okay, they shouldn’t charge. I’m talking about normal people. No, usually mehudar often means a more beautiful script, and much of this is nonsense. It’s not at all clear that what you take for two hundred dollars is better than what you take for one hundred dollars. Generally, the other is just style, and it’s not clear. No, I mean, many times rabbis simply talk, that you buy something, this is mehudar, there are levels. It’s not true that it has to do with the law that there are levels.
I can tell you that after what there’s no invalidation, it’s rabbinic. I’m talking about a mezuzah, all mezuzot that you buy, we’re talking that all the letters are there, let’s say the mezuzot that are called weaker mezuzot, so let’s say that among the mehudar mezuzot one in a thousand is invalid. Among those that aren’t mehudar mezuzot one in a hundred is invalid. It’s a question whether you take a weaker one, you’re good at checking, a rabbi checks, and you didn’t fall into the invalid ones. I mean there can be such a topic of such as if, you want a beautiful mezuzah, you need to have beautiful script. But the essence of beautiful script is only when there’s a place to read, as we learned earlier in Torat Moshe.
Sefer Torah, Tefillin, Mezuzah – Where Is Beautiful Script Relevant?
Speaker 2: A Sefer Torah certainly, a Sefer Torah must be more mehudar than the others. But even a mezuzah, tefillin, someone told me that he heard from my father that someone told him that what’s called beautiful script isn’t beautiful at all, because today the beautiful scribes write exactly as if it’s printed. He says, it looks printed. I want one where you can see that a person wrote it.
In the Sefer Torah that I read from, one can read the moods of the person. Just as it says that one saw on Eliyahu Hanavi’s face, somewhere in Carmel, so one sees a bit what he’s thinking. A Sefer Torah is long work, it can even be that it happens that more than one person writes it, a person sometimes a scribe can’t continue.
Any case, I don’t know, therefore I say the law of mehudar script is not a simple law. I don’t know. Sometimes there comes such a… Reb Aharon recently came with a new system that many tefillin are invalid because one followed, I don’t know what. Sometimes there’s a swindler who really cheats people. If it’s really invalid it’s really invalid. He takes a bunch of poor people who don’t know. What’s really invalid is really invalid, and we’re talking all about cleverness.
“Zeh Keli V’anveihu” – When Is One Obligated in Beautification?
Speaker 2: So what does it mean… A Jew comes, he says, “Jews, we make the mitzvah more beautiful.” He puts in more money, let it be in a manner that he puts in more money. Hashem looks, it’s almost a dispute between the Rambam and the dispute of the poskim, he also has a matter to put more money into a mitzvah. You say that one is obligated. No Chassidic Jew puts the mehudar mitzvah that you say. Because he’s afraid he won’t get anyone. You can say that the law of “zeh keli v’anveihu” is on a complete mitzvah, because what you do something that you’re only obligated according to a posek is already itself a beautification. You don’t need to add to that a beautification. An essential mitzvah needs beautification. Clear, what after all, I don’t see that it should become a matter. Here mainly I lack, I remember in the Rebbe even all times, let me tell you in my language.
Trustworthiness of Scribes and Presumption of Validity
Speaker 2: If a person buys a mezuzah from a person who has trustworthiness, apparently the laws of trustworthiness are stated in various laws of testimony and so on. Someone who has a presumption of validity, he asks him, “Is this a valid mezuzah?” and he tells him, “Yes,” even if he didn’t do a checking, and he places it, he has fulfilled his obligation. According to the law he has fulfilled his obligation, just as in all of life one relies on testimony. He has fulfilled his obligation.
Translation
And what does mehadrin mean? Mehadrin means a person who seeks a distinguished sofer, and he knows that he has beautiful handwriting. This is beyond the basic requirement, we’re not talking about that. But perhaps a new type, lately there’s more of this, when people talk about hiddur they don’t necessarily mean a distinguished sofer who has beautiful handwriting, but rather something where there’s control, because there are all sorts of people, and mezuzos have come from other countries. One doesn’t want to trust – perhaps it was written by an am ha’aretz who’s looking for a livelihood, I don’t know what. There are always such concerns that it hasn’t gone through an expert who knows, or… one can see if there’s a disqualification, I don’t believe. What is he really talking about here? Sometimes there are swindlers. Ostensibly it sometimes happens that a marker comes in, it makes sense that someone doesn’t check through. But you go to a sofer, and a sofer who knows the mezuzah… if you buy in a box, that could be. But one buys from a sofer and looks oneself, ostensibly there’s no law of more mehadrin and less mehadrin. There’s more beautiful, there’s less beautiful.
“Zeh Keli V’anveihu” on Something One Doesn’t Look At
Speaker 2: There’s a law of “zeh keli v’anveihu,” one needs to know whether “zeh keli v’anveihu” applies to something that in our lives we’re never going to look at. You’ll say that the mezuzah is something that one opens sometimes. Do you know the story of the one who made a coach for the Rizhiner Rebbe? When he made the coach, in the back one doesn’t put the merchandise, because it’s the back, one puts the merchandise in the front. He brought the coach, the Rebbe said, “I look in the back, there’s merchandise.” He says, “Don’t you know that by us the front is the same as the back?” And I don’t want to say that it’s not beautiful tzitzis, because I’ve seen that it’s beautiful tzitzis, but I try to think, the Jew who puts in his mezuzah at the place that’s not a door, simply he wants to remember the Almighty even all the time that the Rav in this is correct, yes? And the Almighty will tell him that it’s not beautiful tzitzis because he wants to remember the Rav in him.
Practical Advice: Safek D’oraisa and Safek D’rabbanan
Speaker 2: I’ll tell you a simple way, I’ll tell you something, that a Jew, you didn’t have any doubt to rule on, and it becomes a doubt for you, is this a safek d’oraisa, is this a safek d’rabbanan. I understand why a person will buy more expensive and cheaper, why not indeed? Because no one will become poor from the three hundred dollars. Very good. You want to know in general that one must pay the three hundred dollars? I don’t know, if someone understands, has some certain taste in it, I mean not understood.
The Torah’s Simple Way: One Takes What the Merchant Calls Kosher
Speaker 2: I thought this Shabbos, that we need to think very simply, that the world wasn’t created that we need to do everything. One takes a mezuzah from the one who has mezuzos, from the person who writes mezuzos. This means according to this, that if a person comes into a sefarim store, he can take tzitzis from there. There stands a Jew who has a chezkas kashrus, and this is tzitzis, ah, this is tzitzis. When the Torah says one takes tzitzis, it means what the merchant calls tzitzis, what people know as tzitzis. This means, that if the store has tzitzis with techeiles, you need to think further the same thing. The Almighty doesn’t demand from you that you should know all information about techeiles, what every Chazal knows about techeiles thoroughly. If you walk into a store and you see what you learned earlier in the Torah when saying Parshas Krias Shema, you saw that there’s techeiles, it could be that the merchant needs to put it extra, because if a person is concerned about techeiles… Okay, you come up with chiddushei Torah, because you want to learn hilchos tzitzis.
Discussion: When Is It Right to Spend More Money?
Speaker 1: No, but you’re saying, okay, what does one gain from spending more money on what the sofer says is better?
Speaker 2: I don’t know, every person… don’t do things that one must. If one must, one can buy the cheapest that’s acceptable according to all opinions. If a person has a feeling, he wants to show a mitzvah, he buys the best, no problem. So what’s the difference between this one or that one? If a person feels that he’s compromised too much and he’s frightened by that one’s pressure, let him walk around with a turned-around kappel, or wake up with a sleep cap. Let it not clash his image with his… Okay, fine. Let one not think anything. What you’re saying is true.
Speaker 1: Okay. No one says it’s not right to buy his mezuzos, anyway. The only thing is the sofer. Just a mitzvah to support a sofer, yes usually it’s an ani ircha kodeim.
Criticism of Racism in the Sofrim World
Speaker 2: The truth is, very often, let’s say bluntly, very often it’s racism. Because a good sofer means from anshei shelomeinu, versus from some mountain in Shomron, or from some non-heimish Jew. And what does that mean? It could be that one has greater yiras shamayim. It’s really not necessarily so. One needs to know, when someone complains that his tefillin are more mehudar, one needs to know whether he’s encountered other sofrim who don’t do ksiva lishmah, or whose sirtut isn’t according to law, the sirtut he doesn’t do well. Without that, indeed, it’s difficult to simply disqualify other Jews. I don’t believe the idea is to disqualify that one’s chezkas kashrus. That one’s chezkas kashrus is a clear matter. There’s a law of checking, and not to go out and play with other people’s chezkas kashrus. There’s a law of checking the writing, right?
The Law of Checking and Expertise
Speaker 2: It’s no problem, I haven’t learned any hilchos sofrus. I assume he’s an expert, because he’s not an expert, he knows how to write, and he sees that it’s not written well, right? He’ll be able to tell me. There’s a law of taking tefillin, right? He takes closed ones, he takes based on what you look at, you look directly, you see it stands nicely, no letters are missing, whatever, it’s kosher. It’s not… Okay, let’s move on. Enough. Back to the topic.
Back to the Topic: The Rambam’s Position That There Must Be a Door
Speaker 2: So the Rambam was simply that there must be a door. I don’t know what to tell you. Okay, now let’s go into our houses. Again, most doors actually have a door, that’s the fact. Aha. So, there’s no lack… There are various other forms. Our houses are indeed built that way, but… But this is indeed not a door. Often people who live in places where it’s more or less usually good weather, they often have much more open houses, where there’s a piece of partition here and a partition there. Sometimes there’s a door. The question is which of all these… Yes, on the main door of the house. But in the house there are what aren’t really divided into rooms.
Very well, it’s not a room, good morning. It’s only a room according to the position of the Ravad and the like, which could be. Fine. Har HaBayis, exactly what I’m saying, that it would occur to someone that there’s something called a kitchen and a room.
Halacha 5 (Continued) — Doors: Discussion of Posts and Doorposts
Speaker 1: The question is which of all these… yes, on the main door of the house, but in the house there are what aren’t really divided into rooms.
Speaker 2: Very good. It’s not a room, good morning. It’s only a room according to the position of the Rambam and the like. I mean, what could be?
Speaker 1: Fine. The Rav says, exactly what I’m saying, that it would occur to someone that there’s something called a kitchen, and there’s next to it the dining room, and between them there’s some sort of door. I’m not concerned that they have a different environment called a dining room. It’s a door and a door. This is what the Rambam tells us.
Speaker 2: So says the Rambam. Very good.
Speaker 1: The Rav says, according to all opinions one needs the other conditions, everyone agrees that it must have a mezuzah and a doorpost and so on.
Speaker 2: Right. Even if… or only posts? Okay, it’s not such an order, it’s a different reason, but also today there are posts that divide between the two parts.
Speaker 1: Okay, but perhaps it’s different, that that one… does one need what one puts only posts? Perhaps yes, because those posts… first of all, when one puts only posts usually there’s no lintel, which is further not a problem.
Speaker 2: There are arches, there are also sometimes.
Speaker 1: Very good. But then it could be one makes it yes, so that it should be a tzuras hapesach, is another thing. The Rambam, the doorposts, it’s discussed whether it’s only the beauty of doorposts or it holds the roof. The posts don’t hold the roof. It could be certainly all the posts that one puts there don’t hold anything.
Speaker 2: Right, but the Rambam tells you that there must be doors.
Speaker 1: Okay, the Rambam is yes, he’s talking about doors.
Halacha 6: Holy Places Are Exempt from Mezuzah
Speaker 2: Fine. Now the Rambam will speak, the Rambam said that only secular things are obligated in mezuzah. To exclude what? Says the Rambam, “Har HaBayis, the chambers” – around the Har HaBayis there were chambers, where there were various courtyards where the Kohanim sat and the like, courtyards where the Israelites or where the women had to be, “and synagogues and study halls, and all other places that don’t have a dwelling place” – where one doesn’t live there.
Speaker 1: No, specifically such things, synagogues that don’t have a dwelling place. But he says, soon we’ll see…
Speaker 2: No, not specifically in Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, yes. But where one doesn’t live there.
Speaker 2: Soon we’ll see what the law is of a synagogue that has a dwelling place.
Speaker 1: Very good. “They are exempt because they are holy”. What is holy? We learned earlier that a synagogue… the Beis HaMikdash has a law of holiness, various laws. “The house of Hashem and not a holy house,” there’s some such exposition.
Synagogues of Villages – Obligated in Mezuzah
Speaker 2: “Synagogues of villages where guests don’t live in them” – we already said earlier that synagogues of villages are more of a temporary thing where one lives there.
Speaker 1: If one wants to remember the Rambam’s position, it’s even more than that. Often, if one buys a new house and hasn’t yet put in the door, according to the Rambam one must first put in the door and not a mezuzah, and only after one has made a blessing on the mezuzah. It’s a business with the mezuzah.
Speaker 2: He attributes this to holy.
Says the Rambam, “Synagogues of villages” – study halls that are in the villages, we already had earlier that study halls of villages have different laws, it’s more private, one may take it. Here he goes further, “where guests don’t live in them” – like Chassidic shtieblach where the whole community comes, where one learns, “is obligated in mezuzah”.
Why should one live there? He says “obligated” because it is indeed obligated, because it’s halfway secular. “Obligated in mezuzah, because they establish in it a dwelling place”. Very good. Therefore, it could be that today, synagogues of villages don’t have a dwelling place, but one sleeps there in the study hall, one sleeps on the bench. In the villages it happens that one sleeps on the bench. In the cities one has a special dwelling place sometimes, further for the guests or for the gabbai, I know for whom, there’s a mezuzah there.
From this is ostensibly the reason why we put a mezuzah in the study hall today usually, because one eats there and sleeps there, and uses it. If so, one can say that it doesn’t have a law of holiness, perhaps it does have a law that it must have a mezuzah. Usually it’s stringent though. One doesn’t make a blessing though.
The Gates of the Temple and the Chamber of Parvah
Says the Rambam further, “All the gates of the Temple didn’t have a mezuzah”. Why? Because it wasn’t a human dwelling. “Except for the Nikanor Gate which had before it”. But he said that the chamber of Parvah isn’t. He says that all the gates didn’t have a mezuzah except for the Nikanor Gate which had before it. Why? “And there was the chamber of Parvah, and it was a dwelling place for the Kohen Gadol during the seven days of his separation”.
On the eve of seven days before Yom Kippur, they separate the Kohen Gadol, so he went to live there. It turns out that one had to put a mezuzah then. He says that only then, perhaps the whole year one didn’t need a mezuzah. It came to Erev Yom Kippur, for the same reason that one read the whole night, one had to have a mezuzah there.
Speaker 1: No, you need to be a guard. You don’t know. The Rema doesn’t hold so. The Rema holds that it’s a guard from bad things, “I will enter there and I will come after him.” Words of love. Okay.
Halacha 7: The Straw House, the Cattle House, the Wood House, the Storehouse
Speaker 2: Therefore, consequently, since we’ve now learned that not only a place… ah, we’ll now go learn. Further, such a… I wanted to go according to the order. The straw house. No, we saw earlier. This is still such conditions. What’s the condition? Such places that people have in their house, sections, such sheds. The shed is high, the cattle house. The storehouses, the human dwelling.
Now he says thus, there are places, little houses, such sheds, or how does one call it? Storages. A place where one keeps the straw, a stable where one keeps the cattle, the place where one keeps the wood for heating, or the storehouse, in general a place where one keeps treasures. All these places are not dwelling places, “are exempt from mezuzah, as it says ‘your house,’ ‘your house’ I told you”, the house where you live, “excluding these and similar ones”.
A Cattle Barn Where Women Sit and Adorn Themselves
“Therefore, a cattle barn”, but it happens yes that women have another use. That the cattle barn is a place where women sit and adorn themselves. He says here basically “dual use” one can call it, yes? A place that’s used both for a cattle barn to feed, but also has a use that women sit there, “which is obligated in mezuzah, because there is designation for human dwelling”. Ostensibly one used to establish there a place with a mirror, I know what, how one can adorn oneself. Therefore it’s called a place that’s also used for human dwelling.
Discussion: Question About a Walk-in Closet
Speaker 1: Another… what about the gatehouse? That’s called the room of the gate of the courtyard, which we also learned this law. I want to stop here for a moment. So according to the law, people have a question if one has a large walk-in closet. So ostensibly it’s called a storehouse. Others are indeed stringent that if it’s large enough with learning. But ostensibly it’s a storehouse, it’s a place where one keeps things. Here it already says a storehouse, no? It’s next to the bedroom and there’s a large walk-in closet that has the measure to… But further, there’s a question if the women adorn themselves there, if there’s such a thing.
Speaker 2: Not adorn themselves, but they dress there sometimes or… if it’s designated for that side.
Speaker 1: No, the sitting is because, perhaps. But it’s an established place. Okay. It’s not if one dresses sometimes when someone is in the bathroom.
Speaker 2: Okay, that’s the point. Perhaps yes, perhaps then. It’s a place designated for human dwelling. Okay.
Gatehouse, Garden, Pen
Speaker 1: Next. Say you further, what else is exempt? Gatehouse. A room that’s only a passageway room?
Speaker 2: He translates. In front of the house there’s such a gatehouse, a place like… yes?
Speaker 1: Yes, yes. Where does he call the place? How is the place called? A gatehouse?
Speaker 2: No. But in English, what is the space that comes in.
Speaker 1: No. He’s talking about a courtyard to your house. Gatehouse was your gatehouse. The house is often arranged, such a front state, and my steps is a porch, like a garden, like a pen, a garden that has a door to enter, or like a pen, a stable, knows cattle and pen. Cattle goes the cattle, and pen goes the sheep. So?
Speaker 1: Yes, first to pen stands in a Mishnah. And cattle separate and a cattle house. And the women are more comfortable to adorn themselves with the sheep than with the little sheep. Okay, first is the cattle house has literally a house, and a house is not a house. Can, cattle house has a stable with a roof out what can the cattle needs a roof, and very live with tell. Not is just so a roof in the spaces. And he weighs is indeed obligated. What leads in, also a courtyard leads in, a courtyard doesn’t have doors though. So I mean.
English Translation
Speaker 2: Okay, “It is exempt from mezuzah because it does not serve as a dwelling”. In any case, the Rambam means to say that even if they do have a full doorpost, as you see it, everything. The fact that it’s only a garden, it’s not a place in a house where one lives, all these things are a law regarding a beit zavul (permanent dwelling).
Law 8: Gates of Courtyards, Alleyways, Cities and Towns
Speaker 2: And what is the reason it is obligated in mezuzah? Obviously, it’s a matter that is not otherwise obligated in mezuzah. If it’s made to lead into the house, we have the conditions of “in your gates,” “in your gates,” all these things, when they say mezuzah must have a purpose of dwelling.
“Therefore, both gates of courtyards, and gates of alleyways, and gates of cities and towns”, any place that leads to a dwelling, for example courtyards, where in the courtyard there are houses, or alleyways, where in the alley there are courtyards. One learns more in the laws of Shabbat about these laws, because the courtyard has a house, and the garden goes to the courtyard.
Therefore one must understand what he spoke about earlier when he said that a courtyard, a garden is exempt. From which garden can it be exempt? A garden that doesn’t lead to any place where… yes, a garden that is between gardens, whatever.
The Rambam says further, the next law was… we already saw this law earlier too, by the Nicanor Gate. All gates that go to the chambers of the Temple are obligated, for the same reason.
Law 9: Honorable Dwelling
Now, afterwards the Tanna taught that it must be an honorable dwelling. The Rambam says, “Therefore, a bathroom, and a bathhouse, and a ritual bath, and a tannery, and the like” – a place where one processes hides, “are exempt from mezuzah, because they do not serve as an honorable dwelling”, it’s not made for an honorable dwelling. The tanner, poor thing, lives there, no, he lives in Staten Island, he goes in for Mincha, he’s not allowed to come to the branch, he can become a worker there.
Law 10: Permanent Dwelling – Sukkah
Further was permanent dwelling, even temporary dwelling is like an inn. The Rambam says, Sukkot is a holiday on the holiday, one makes a sukkah for the holiday
Sukkah of Potters: The Distinction Between Outer and Inner
Speaker 1: By both cases when one builds a little house for a short time, also a ship until one arrives, is exempt from mezuzah, because it’s not one that is made for permanent dwelling, he is not there permanently.
Yes, it says sukkah of potters. What is a potter? Potter means an artisan. You see here that an inn is indeed obligated. What was learned earlier was that the innkeeper is exempt if he is only temporary dwelling, the one who lives there, the one who comes to go, if he is only thirty days or more. But permanent dwelling doesn’t mean an inn, it only means something that one sets up for a short time. Not that the person lives permanently, but that the house is permanent.
It says the sukkah of potters is exempt from mezuzah. Yes, a potter is one who makes pottery, like clay in the hand of the potter. What can one make for two reasons: either one makes it for the holiday, or one makes it for some gathering, for a marketplace or whatever. And he makes, takes things on hire. And if the market is there a question of it says the sukkah of potters is exempt from mezuzah, so the outer one is exempt from mezuzah, so it’s not permanent.
The explanation? It means that one is not permanent. Why not? What’s going on here with the potters? Why only the outside? Because one only goes in there to the first one, one doesn’t live there at all. So say the commentators here. In general, why the outer one yes? So they bring, because in the outer one he only puts out his pots that he sells. A potter is generally one who sells pots and the like, he makes pots. But the work he does in the innermost one. That is the work.
This is a certain little house like certain workers live. That the front is a store and the back is their private house. Their private house must have, and the store in the front not. So it is today, that even if they don’t come in to see from permanence there must be.
Question: A Hunting Gate is Indeed Permanent
Ah, he explains in the way of the table, that seemingly a hunting gate is a permanent thing, we learned that a hunting gate and a normal thing is indeed obligated. The answer is that this is different, because this is not a permanent place, it’s not ever used, it’s a little sukkah, and a little sukkah is not a building, and one uses it sometimes when one needs a place, I don’t know what, it’s not a permanent thing, therefore it is exempt. Not exactly clear what this means, what this is somewhat the idea.
They have shops in the markets, the story is that he has a little booth that he makes in the market, is also the answer. Yes, at night it’s completely empty, he brings, one only uses it for merchandise, and people don’t live there. It means the matter, like for example what there is by the boardwalks, you know what, such little booths, or expos.
Law 11 – A House That Has Many Openings, Rooms, and an Opening Between House and Upper Story
Speaker 1: A house that has many openings, even though one is not accustomed to go out and come in except through one of them. A house that has many doors, like today thank God people have space, even if he only used one of them, one must have a mezuzah on each opening.
The same thing, internal doors. An opening between the house and the upper story, also inside the house, the doors between the house and upper story, between two floors, is obligated in mezuzah. A room in the house, even a room within a room, every room in the house, even one room inside a room, is obligated to make a mezuzah, the gate of the inner room and the gate of the outer room and the gate of the house. Every room in the house one must put a mezuzah, each one must have.
Why? Because they all serve for dwelling and are permanent, because all of them are made to live in the dwelling and they are permanent. All these rules, as long as it’s not one of the ten things, it is obligated in mezuzah. One doesn’t say only the place where you sleep, or only the place where you eat, or only the place where you go in most of the time. All the rest, all things, small things, one doesn’t say, therefore it’s fine.
Opening of a Synagogue and Study Hall
So he continues, an opening of a synagogue and study hall, is also exempt because it’s holy. Yes, but what does it come in here to count? It’s a door between this and a house. If one is accustomed to go out and come in through it, it is obligated in mezuzah, and if not, exempt. He’s talking about an opening of his house, not the opening of the study hall. An opening between the study hall and his house, so that he can enter the study hall.
Speaker 2: Most people live in the study hall.
Speaker 1: He doesn’t make a door, he doesn’t make a mezuzah for the exit if there’s a fire.
Speaker 2: Okay, I don’t know, perhaps others can…
Speaker 1: If he doesn’t use it, it’s a law of the study hall which is exempt. Not clear to me. So perhaps…
Speaker 2: So he says, he says like you.
Speaker 1: Okay, I hear.
Speaker 2: No, I live in such a place, I always grew up in such a place, and I looked that it’s an honor to the study hall that you shouldn’t come in from the lower door like you’re distinguished, you should go in from the front door.
Speaker 1: But no, I’m telling you, if the person doesn’t use this, it’s an opening of the study hall. If he uses it, he’s at home here, yes, it’s like his door.
Speaker 2: Which side did he put the mezuzah there?
Speaker 1: But the study hall is always exempt. The place where the whole world comes in is always exempt. Even if he has a door in, yes? It’s the same. But here I know yes that there’s a piece that is a synagogue that belongs to an individual.
Speaker 2: Yes, who has a house there? It’s only the sexton, the coffee, the rosh yeshiva, the mikvah lady.
Speaker 1: Okay, further. Rav Huna, it says in the Gemara, Rav Huna had a door from his house to the study hall. And the Gemara says that he was accustomed to make there. This is the source of the law. Rav Huna was a rosh yeshiva. It makes sense. It was already an old custom that the rosh yeshiva lives next to the study hall. Done.
Law 12 – Opening Between Two Houses: The Door Hinge
Speaker 1: Now, an opening between two houses, is the question as we learned. We haven’t learned at all yet, we’re going to make it on the right side. Anyway.
Okay, an opening between two houses, one brings and takes the strap of the door. The place where the hinge is seen with it, what is the translation?
Speaker 2: Ah, good question.
Speaker 1: The place where the hinge is seen from it. What is the translation “the place where the hinge is seen from it”? The Rambam doesn’t say this. Hinge means the… the… the… the hinge, right? If you bring from how Rashi in Menachot translates, it makes sense that the house, basically the door… the house to which the door is closer. What does it mean it’s closer? In any case part of it.
Again, if there are two houses, and here next to the house is the door, you understand that the house is more important, and the other person grabs on. The other person has a way in through the door, but the door is made honorably for the person next to whom it was built.
But the door, I don’t understand what the translation is. The hinge means like the thing, the hinge, whatever, the thing that the door turns on. Yes, there where the right side of the hinge of the door, so says Rashi in Menachot. The Rambam doesn’t bring the right side.
Speaker 2: Yes, but the Rambam doesn’t bring from everyone yet.
Speaker 1: He means the important one. There, everyone knows where is the center of the hinge of the door, to which side goes the hinge of the door. “The place where the hinge is seen from it,” but the words “the place where the hinge is seen from it” don’t fit.
Speaker 2: Yes, I don’t know. When you stand at the door, which house do you see from both?
Speaker 1: Depends on which side you stand. But, it’s many times when it’s not in the middle, it’s usually more pushed to one side.
Speaker 2: It’s an opening between two houses.
Speaker 1: Good, so.
Speaker 2: Okay, and?
Speaker 1: And the opening is closer to one house.
Speaker 2: How is it closer? It’s such a thick wall? What are you talking about? The two…
Speaker 1: No, afterwards there’s still a piece of courtyard.
Speaker 2: I don’t understand. The opening leads into two houses?
Speaker 1: No, the opening is between two houses. “An opening between two houses” means, it goes in from one house to the second.
Speaker 2: It leads to two houses?
Speaker 1: No, no, it’s not like that. “An opening between two houses” means, usually the house where one goes in, there he makes the mezuzah. What is there two houses, one between the second?
Speaker 2: Ah, two partners have a… for example, two people have an opening between two houses, and it goes between both houses. Whose opening is it?
Speaker 1: That is the question. Ah, he says, there where one sees the hinge. That is the explanation of the Rambam.
Speaker 2: But every door has one side where there’s the threshold and another side.
Speaker 1: But the other door I understand it, for example, usually, not always, usually, whoever has the threshold, he can lock, he has responsibility.
Speaker 2: No, a door, this is the door, the door has the side, here he has a lock and everything, and here he has the other side, he doesn’t have a lock.
Speaker 1: The lock can be put on whichever side one wants.
Speaker 2: So, the door, the main thing you mean, that here is the mezuzah, it’s on the side, the right side of the side.
Speaker 1: Well, well, such a thing I didn’t know.
Speaker 2: Okay, it could be there’s a lock, it could be there’s no lock. Hinge means a “hinge” in English. Sometimes, I don’t know how it was in the past with hinges, but as one sees the hinge, is the more important one, is the place where the door means, where the door is…
What it says is “seen from it,” I don’t know what the translation is, but today’s doors, usually it goes into a house, usually a room, the room that the door means it goes into, usually. So, therefore, on that side one can see the hinge, because it opens to that side.
So one lives with this world according to halacha. But what the translation is in the law, I don’t know. Another solution is the law, the room that the door opens into. When you open a door, you can go into the house or out. There where it goes into that room, that one is the main one, and therefore that one must make the mezuzah, or it opens on the right side of that house.
This is the simple law, but “exactly how to explain,” I don’t know. Here in this one makes politics. Politics, I mean to say dispute of the poskim, I mean they have different answers about this. Okay.
Law 12 (Continued) – Place of Affixing the Mezuzah: Height and Width
Speaker 1: The Rambam says, where does one put the mezuzah? Where on the doorpost? Which strength of the mezuzah? The Rambam says, “Adjacent to the doorway”, in the space where there is the door, “within a tefach adjacent to the outside”. As you said earlier, if one digs for the same thing, if it’s dug in a tefach it is invalid.
“Adjacent to the outside, at the beginning of the upper third”, at the beginning of the upper third “of the height of the gate”, of how high the door is. You divide the height of the door into three, and the higher upper third. So says the Rambam.
“And if one affixed it higher than this”, if one put it higher than this, it is valid. How? But it should be enough a tefach away from the lintel of the top of the roof. From the whole top, but…
Law 12 (Continued) — Place of Affixing the Mezuzah
Speaker 1:
Outside at the beginning of the upper third, at the beginning of the upper third of the height of the gate, of how high the door is. You divide the height of the door into three, and the higher upper third.
The Rambam says, and if one affixed it higher, if one put it higher than the upper third, it is valid. And it is, says the Rambam, it should be enough a tefach away from the lintel, from the top, from the roof. Not from the whole top, but from the roof.
And how, which side, in which direction does one put it? The right of one entering the house, it’s the right side of the one who comes into the house. The Rambam says, and if one affixed it on the left, if one put it on the left side as one comes into the house, it is invalid. And simply so, the right is also indispensable. This is the place.
The Rambam says, a house of partners is also obligated in mezuzah.
Concluding Words – The Purpose of the Mitzvah of Mezuzah
The Obligation of Care with Mezuzah
Speaker 1:
The Rambam says, his concluding words, his closing to the laws of mezuzah, the Rambam says, a person is obligated to be careful with mezuzah, a person must be careful and put with all the laws of mezuzah. The one who is here said, a person is obligated to be careful with mezuzah means one must be beautiful with it.
What does it say? A person is obligated to be careful with mezuzah, a person must be careful with the mezuzah, because it is an obligation of everyone always, it’s the obligation of each one, it’s a constant obligation. Which for example is not there by tefillin and Shema, when there is a thing, he doesn’t feel well, he returned from the road, I don’t know what. The mezuzah lies there forever.
And you remember that we learned that the greatest love is “I have set Hashem before me always.” How much more always it is more the purpose and end of love. Will always have the things that are a reminder of love of Hashem constantly. It’s the most consistent reminder, basically. A person has a full reminder.
The “Circular” Aspect of Shema and Mezuzah
Speaker 1:
All these things remind of the same thing, the unity of Hashem. Shema says the unity of Hashem. Tefillin, blessings, everything. No, here it is directly, because it’s Shema itself. Blessings is not the text.
Because here, it’s very interesting, because it’s circular about Shema. Shema is very important, one says it every day. But besides that one puts it on the head so that one should also remember it. And when one has it on the head there is a mitzvah to say it, as the Rambam said earlier that when someone puts on tefillin and he doesn’t say, one says it again because one has it now on the head.
And the same thing one puts it on the door, and when one puts it on the door one remembers Shema. It’s understood that one says Shema, yes, when a Jew goes in he doesn’t say quickly “Hear O Israel, Hashem is our God, Hashem is One,” he doesn’t say like that, or a question, he remembers the Almighty again.
Mezuzah is the Most Constant Reminder
Speaker 1:
And this he says is even more constant, says Rabbi Yitzchak, very good, because it’s not a burden and fullness, and not only that, one goes regularly in and out of his house, and every exit and entrance he encounters the unity of the name of the Holy One, Blessed be He.
And what happens then is v’zachar ahavaso, he should remember the ahavas Hashem (love of God). Ahavas Hashem doesn’t mean that the Almighty loves him, that’s a Chassidic interpretation, rather he should remember that there is for him a mitzvah of ahavas Hashem.
Should he remember the love or should he remember the mitzvah of love? He should remember the love, the affection, yes, he should remember that he loves the Almighty. Better interpretation, no?
Mezuzah on the Doorpost – Symbolic Meaning
Speaker 1:
V’ye’ir mishnaso, he should awaken from his sleep, v’shigiono, and from being preoccupied with hevel hazman (the vanity of temporal matters). There are those who say that mezuzah is a kind of tekias shofar (shofar blast) that a Jew has every day, it’s a kind of tekias shofar, it gives him such a wake-up call.
V’yeda, and after he awakens he will grasp and see she’ein sham davar ha’omed l’olam ul’olmei olamim (that there is nothing that stands forever and ever). I think that the doorpost is a very strong place, a strong part of the house, there where one must place the doors, yes? Seemingly it’s a strong place of the house.
There one places a mezuzah, and one says, you’ve built a house, you have a strong house, yes? Do you see what he’s saying here? No, this is a beautiful Torah. What the Rambam says is that nothing stands forever except the Almighty.
What the Rambam says is very important, he constantly encounters this, he keeps bumping into this, and he will remember that what remains forever? He’s preparing to do business today, in his house he does everything, he lives there. Does he think he’ll live forever? No.
What remains forever is, don’t you hear that there is nothing ha’omed l’olam ul’olmei olamim? Ela yedias Tzur ha’olam. Only knowing the Source of the world, that’s what remains forever, the only thing that remains forever, everything else passes.
Knowing the Source of the world, or knowing the Almighty who is the Yotzer ha’olam (Creator of the world)? One means the Almighty that the Rambam is mussar (ethical teaching). Yes, the whole thing reminds him, he returns to his intellect, to his peace, he goes to engage in.
Comparison Between Mezuzah and Tefillin – Two Levels
Speaker 1:
I wanted here for a minute, it’s very interesting, because it’s very similar to what they learned how the Rambam said regarding tefillin. Also there the Rambam said this language, he said that one must have yishuv hadaas (settled mind) and remember, because it reminds him of his yiras (fear of) the Almighty, yes? What was the language? Why do you know to arrive? What is the similar thing. Both are there to remind…
He said, ah, when a person puts on tefillin it’s in his heart, and he becomes humble and God-fearing, it doesn’t say exactly the same language, because one is taken with strength and power in tefillin, because one removes tefillin, but rather in his heart to the words, he sees that tefillin is a higher level.
Why? Because tefillin is when one is engaged in Torah, because here we’re talking about going in, going out, one doesn’t expect from a person to stand completely. Therefore when he sleeps, one wakes him up, he’s engaged in Torah, with this one wakes him up. So that he will be humble, yes, it’s already a greater level.
Tefillin is something that a tzaddik does, a ben Torah does tefillin. The simple Jew has the mezuzah that reminds him.
The Rambam’s Approach vs. Ramban – Reminder vs. Declaration
Speaker 1:
But what’s interesting to me, this is the Rambam’s approach. But for example, the Ramban I’ve noticed a few times, that there’s also an aspect of a demonstration. Right by tefillin we also saw a bit that the nations should see, but the Rambam says so when a person puts on tefillin, but it’s modest, just like, it fits with the modest Jew and reward in essence, which we learned earlier, just like, a demonstration that he’s a dedicated creation to the Almighty, yes that’s when the Rambam looks at it, there’s also a dispute between the Rambam and the Ramban, or…
But the Rambam says very clearly that it’s all to awaken the person, and about this the Rambam says it’s not to protect, but the Ramban will already say let’s see the next piece of Rambam, it also has protection. No, not protection. Protection from sinning. If the listeners have also requested shiurim, we’ll see, we’ll talk about this…
No, no, it’s actually different. The Rambam speaks explicitly about mezuzah, yes, yes, yes. Also Parshas Bo, about this he doesn’t say. Also tefillin, tefillin also. Ah, it’s on the place. The Ramban looks to have like a declaration to the world. And also blowing shofar, there is that one reveals the kingship of the Almighty. And the Rambam with all these things, he says no, it awakens the person, it’s the person.
I’m not sure that the Ramban says exactly a declaration to the world, or perhaps more like… tzitzis on his garment which reminds again that the Almighty gave us the Torah. And the tzitzis on his garment which reminds again Krias Shema. Strengthens so that he won’t sin…
“Choneh Malach Hashem Saviv Lirei’av Vayechaltzeim” – The Rambam’s Interpretation of “Angels”
Speaker 1:
He tells you three things, it’s like three things. Enough reminders, one has many things that remind him. This fits exactly with the Rambam, the word – reminders.
But can it be from Chazal? The enough reminders? No, no, I connected them together. Here the Rambam explains. Ah, enough – here the Rambam changes, enough now is the reminders, one has enough that reminds him of the Creator.
Because they are angels that remind them of His work – they, all these reminders are angels. Who are angels? Angels are reminders. You want to know who are the angels leshomrecha bechol derachecha (to guard you in all your ways) – the good angels that should be with you at night, in the name of Hashem, from him Michael and Gabriel, these are the many reminders that remind a Jew that there’s a Creator in the world, and when a Jew knows that there’s a Creator in the world, he finds protection – enough, choneh malach Hashem, saviv lirei’av vayechaltzeim (the angel of Hashem encamps around those who fear Him and rescues them) – the many angels do a bit, the Rambam does a very nice job of how he brings in the angels. He says that all these things are about bringing in.
The Gemara says with strength, everything with strength so that he won’t sin, as it says “and the threefold cord is not quickly broken”.
“V’hachut Hameshulash” – Three Mitzvos
Speaker 1:
With strength means it’s a chazakah (strong foundation). The Rambam interpreted that this is a chazakah. Chazakah is also that the three things are strong. But the Rambam doesn’t bring the verse. It’s interesting that one doesn’t speak out chazakah from “the threefold cord” regarding shalom bayis and such. The Gemara here does it a bit. Okay, the Gemara has another source for protection. The Rambam doesn’t bring the verse, but he means this.
But the Gemara says and it says “choneh malach Hashem saviv lirei’av vayechaltzeim”. So the Rambam explains what comes in here. He says with strength so that he won’t sin. But also, it’s not the Rambam’s innovation but it’s a reminder. Here he has exactly a source that all these things are so that he won’t sin, not that harmful spirits shouldn’t cause damage. Choneh malach Hashem saviv lirei’av vayechaltzeim fits with the Rambam’s Torah. It’s not that the Rambam read into the Gemara, the Gemara has exactly a source for the Rambam. It’s clear that it’s protection from sinning.
And choneh malach Hashem, the Rambam understood what does the Gemara mean with this verse? The Gemara means to say that what are the angels that guard a person from sinning? Which angels? The reminders that he places, the tefillin, the mezuzah, the tzitzis. These are all angels that surround the person.
And this is a great strengthening for all approaches, and they make strength not to let the honored mekubalim (kabbalists). Here there’s a piece, one can say that honored means the tzitzis, the tefillin, because one does remove the tefillin when going to the bathroom. And they are the angels of which we speak, which is very nice.
Discussion: The Rambam’s Approach vs. Mekubalim – Protection from Sin vs. Protection from Harmful Spirits
Speaker 1:
It’s very interesting, I see that the Rambam is very consistent with his approach that everything is to remind the person. The Ramban would perhaps say that there’s an aspect of like a declaration or a reminder. But there are those who say straight out that it’s made for protection from harmful spirits, it’s a power of “and all the peoples of the earth will see that the name of Hashem is called upon you and they will fear you”. One can say this by tefillin, “and all the peoples of the earth will see that the name of Hashem is called upon you and they will fear you”. And by mezuzah we also had like the Onkelos translation. Is there yes an approach that says it exactly so? It’s according to kabbalah one can say so for example, that it’s protection, it kills thousands of harmful spirits.
Speaker 2:
There’s no doubt that the mekubalim are very happy with this, because the harmful spirits are the same group that cause damage, the same ones that make the decree. The angels are those who guard day and night. No, that means the Rambam didn’t give a look directly at the angels. Because the angels themselves he also says that they are the reminders. But he did give a place here for the angels to understand.
Yes, one can’t say that it’s only segulos (mystical remedies). On the contrary, I would be more inclined to say that all these things repel external forces, it’s protection from klipos (spiritual husks). But what are klipos? Klipos are the same things that cause sin, the same things that cause… And the Krias Shema which is a double-edged sword that kills harmful spirits.
Speaker 1:
The angels are those who guard afterward.
Speaker 2:
No, that means that the Rambam here at the end gave a look into angels, because the angels themselves he also says that they are many reminders. But he did give a place for the angels to be interesting.
Speaker 1:
Yes, but you can’t say that it’s only revelation. It’s on the contrary, a mekubal will always say that all these things are external matters, it’s protection from klipos. But what are klipos? Klipos are the same thing that cause sin, and the same thing that cause… And the Krias Shema, which is a double-edged sword that kills harmful spirits, also kills the bad thoughts, according to the Rambam’s approach.
Speaker 2:
Very good. So the chapter begins with ten things, and it ends with angels. So, we have here the ten angels. Reminders, three reminders: tzitzis, tefillin, and mezuzah. Two tefillin, so there are four reminders. And angels. They are the angels.
Speaker 1:
Wonderful. They should all have good angels. Every chapter of the shiur is an angel, very good. Very good. Because when it goes into the head, then one thinks it, and remembers it, and so on.