Epilogue

A word of caution: one may be left after reading these pages with the impression that the commandment of mezuzah is the single most important mitzvah in Judaism. While it would be flattering for the author if these writings made that impression on the reader, it would be misleading to leave the reader with such a one-sided impression. Our goal was not to single out the commandment of mezuzah as more important than others, but rather to show the profound religious, ethical and mystical significance of a Divine commandment which is often looked upon as, at best, a nice custom. Any mitzvah of the Torah could have been accorded the same treatment and volumes can (and should) be written about each of them.

Furthermore, each of the 613 commandments contains within it all of the other 612 commandments. Thus we have a principle in Judaism: Ha-osek b’mitzvah, patur min hamitzvah – one who is engaged in the performance of a religious precept is exempt [as long as he is occupied with it] from other precepts. This is not merely because we can do only one thing at a time. On a deeper level, while performing a particular mitzvah we are at the same time performing all of them, as they are all included in this mitzvah. All of the commandments are interrelated, and together comprise one unity, just as the various parts of the human organism together make up a human being. Thus, the Zohar calls the 613 commandments “the limbs of the King”.

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The doorposts may have warped from age, and the houses deteriorated over time. But the small scroll of parchment, a mezuzah, which a Jew carries with him from home to home, from country to country, is the keeper of our traditions. As the national flag it carries our sacred motto: Hear O Israel, the L‑rd is our G‑d, the L‑rd is One! It makes our home, however small, into a Temple, a Sanctuary of G‑d. The arrow of the mezuzah points to the inner meaning of life, to an inner aspect of the Jewish soul, to the inner purpose of Creation, to the era of Mashiach, when unity and harmony will rule the world. The first letter of the word mezuzah (which according to the teachings of Kabbalah is the source of the word), Mem, is the first letter of the word Mashiach. As in the story of the Exodus, when the mitzvah to mark the doorposts of Jewish homes was the last step before the geulah (redemption), may the merit of this great mitzvah bring the ultimate Redemption immediately to the Jewish people and to all of humanity.