Thanks so much for bringing us up to date. I am glad you still live in the house and I hope it’s a happy place for you. Having your Jewish friend explain the Mezuzah was a lovely idea.
And I agree with everything Slow_Moving_Vehicle had to say.
That’s awesome. I’m glad you found something meaningful.
I wonder how long it will be before we see a Ring doorbell cam with a built-in mezuzah.
Is this anything like the non-Rabbinic mezuzah plaques described in Wikipedia? eg
(Samaritan)
http://www.talentshare.org/~mm9n/articles/mezuzah/10.htm62.jpg
(Karaite)
No, not much like that at all. Mine is just the text from Deuteronomy, in English, with a citation.
I THINK the bowl of holy water at the door for Catholics was done years ago, back before Vatican II – probably even way before then. I’ve never seen it, but maybe my dad knows something about it. I’ll ask him.
So if you buy a house that has a mezuzot on it, and you’re not Jewish, you should have it removed then?
Sure, but most Jews would remove their mezuzah when they move out. I certainly did for mine. If it hasn’t been removed by the previous owners I would expect a non-Jew to remove it. There’s no reason to keep it up there.
Unless, of course, the gentile has no idea what it is and simply never bothers to take it down.
But, since it contains a scroll with the word of G*d on it I think it’s supposed to be disposed of in a particular manner. The scroll, that is, the fancy container is just that, a container.
It’s easier to do nothing. That was my impression as a little kid, anyway.
When i lived in NYC, and awful lot of non-Jews had mezuzot ok their apartment doors. They were left by a Jew, and it can be a nuisance to remove, and they just stayed there.
Fair enough. All of mine have been two simple screws or brads, easy enough to remove in 2 minutes.
Especially in cities, start noticing a lump on the upper right of the door frame. Those are mezuzot that have been painted over by subsequent tenants.
Forever, I hope.
Wouldn’t really be in the right place, anyway. The mezuzah goes fairly high up on the right side of the door, on the frame facing to the left. Doorbells normally face toward the outside of the house, about halfway down.
Also, I would not trust my Jewish ritual objects to Amazon.
Imagine the market for door golems if they could work it out.
No room for a door golem with Maxwell’s demon in the way.
Would it come with a door Smeagol?
That actually came up when I asked an expert the pronunciation of golem. ‘Goh lemm. Gollum is Sméagol’
I’m an old, and I only noticed them when I was a kid at houses of people who were old then. So, a pretty long time ago. And I don’t remember bowls of water. I mostly saw very small versions of the wall-mounted holy water basins like in churches. And the water had to be blessed by a priest. Otherwise, they’d just be weird fingerbowls.
My daughter rented an apartment that had one left by a previous tenant. I knew what it was, but had no idea about what to do with it. If you take it down do yo throw it in the garbage? That seemed wrong. Toss it in the junk drawer with the oddball phone chargers? Less wrong, but still wrong. In the end I advised her to leave it up, and up it stayed, at least until the next tenant arrived.
That’s where my extra one lives. Well, not the junk drawer, but a similar drawer.