Does A Wearhouse Need a Mezuzah and Do We Make a Brachah?

According to some Rabonim a warehouse requires a mezuzah and a brachah is made. This would be true for a store as well and even for a shed (even one that you just keep bicycles and suckah panels and so forth) that is four amosby four amos (approximately 36 sq. ft.) I just spoke to Rabbi Chaim Schabes of New Hempstead and this is what he holds. I asked him if it mattered that the Rambam says a storehouse does not require a mezuzah and therefore if we put one up it should be without a brachah. He answered that since the Shulchan Aruch requires a mezuzah on a storehouse, we make a brachah when we put it up.

Which Side of the Door Case 1

You walk through the front door, walk down a hall to a bedroom, enter thebedroom, go through the bedroom and enter the garage. The only way into the garage from the house is through the bedroom, or from the outside door into the garage. Which side does the mezuzah from the bedroom to the garage go on? I thought to say that it goes on the right side going into the bedroom from the garage because the garage is only a beis haotzar (storage room) while a bedroom is a real beis dira (room that one lives in). I asked Reb BenTzion Wosner and he disagreed. He said that we follow the rule that the mezuzah always goes on the right side as we go deeper into the house (derech k’neisah).

What Is The Proper Location For a Mezuzah On A Wide Doorway?

 The halachah requires the mezuzah to go on the outer tefach (four and one half inches) of the doorway. There are two possible reasons why this is so. One is so that the entire house is protected. The other is so that we come into contact with the mitzvah at the earliest point in time. When the door in question is an outer door the custom is to put it on the outermost spot (unless it will be heavily rained upon). On the inside doorways, since they are already protected by the mezuzos that are on rooms that are closer to the outside of the house, the minhag (custom) is to put it on the middle of the door frame.

Many People Have Told Me You Don’t Need To Check Indoor Mezuzos These Days

I have heard many times that since the temperture is consistent in the modern houses that we live in, that it is not necessary to check mezuzos twice every seven years. I asked Reb Avraham Tzvi Wosner if there is any truth to this and he told me it is not true. He explained that there were plenty of places that the Jewish people lived in the past that had mild climates and we don’t find rabbinic sources that say that they didn’t need to check their mezuzos because of the mild climate. It also is not true that houses had only a front door and no inside rooms. There are many indications that people had houses with multiple rooms throughout history.

Where do I put the mezuzah on a tall doorway?

The halacha is to place the mezuzah at the begining of the top third of the doorway. As long as it is at least one tefach (handbreadth, about four and one half inches) from the top of the doorway it is kosher. If the doorway is very high, the mezuzah is placed at shoulder height. What is considered very high? If the mezuzah would be above the face of a normal person, the doorway is considered ‘very tall’ and the mezuzah should be placed at shoulder height. The reason for this is that mezuzos are meant to be seen, so that we remember Hashem and his torah.

Upside Down Mezuzos

Today I did a Mezuzah HouseCall and found seven upside down mezuzos! An upside down mezuzah doesn’t fulfill the mitzvah. I often see a single upside down mezuzah, but seven? How could this happen? The homeowner told me that he bought all of them in Eretz Yisroel from the same person. In addition to being only barely acceptable as far as kashrus goes, the person who sold them didn’t even know how to put them into the case! I hope the conclusion that you draw from this will be, “Just because it comes from Israel doesn’t mean it is kosher”. So many people have this idea in their head that if it comes from Israel it must be good. Not true. I will say that a large percentage of the tefillin and mezuzos that I sell do come Israel, but they are coming from people that I know and trust. I’ll tell you another thing this person told me. His son who is presently in Israel lost his tefillin. He instructed his son to go buy a new set. His son went to Meah Sh’arim and bought a new set. The total price was $300.00. I told him he should  definitely get them checked as soon as possible. Since he had just purchased a new set for another son and spent three times as much, he very much agreed with me that they need to be checked.

Let me know what you think: Do they need to be checked right away or not?

By the way, here is a good tip for making sure your mezuzos are right side up: When you are ready to put up your mezuzos, place all the cases on the table in front of you with the tops away from you. Next, place all the mezuzos on the table with the tops away from you. Now double check that all the tops of all the cases and all the mezuzos are away from you. If you place all the mezuzos into the cases when every thing is set up like this, it is almost impossible for you to make a mistake.

Tilt the mezuzah towards the room you are going into.

Yesterday, while on a house call, I saw a mezuzah going out to the back yard. It was on the right side going out, which is correct according to some opinions (I always put on the right side going in–more on that in another post). The only problem was that the top of the mezuzah was tilted towards the inside of the house. That would be correct if you were following the shita that mezuzos go on the right side of door coming in from the back yard. In this case I don’t think it means the person wasn’t yotzie the mitzvah, but it is not the correct way to perform the mitzvah.