Also called mezuza, mezuzot (plural), klaf
A small handwritten parchment scroll of verses from Deuteronomy, rolled into a case and fixed to the doorposts of a Jewish home, fulfilling the commandment to write God's words on the doorposts of your house. It is a living mitzvah, not a decoration or a lucky charm.
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Take care: This is a living Jewish commandment: buy a properly written scroll and follow your rabbi's guidance rather than copying the text yourself. Non-Jews should not reproduce the scroll or the blessing as magic; choose an open house blessing instead.
Fragments of mezuzah parchments were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, seven in Qumran Cave 4 and one in Cave 8. They show that writing these verses for the doorpost was already practised in the Hasmonean period, though their selection of passages sometimes differs from today's standard text.
Samaritans do not use a rolled parchment. Instead they set Torah verses, historically carved in stone and now often painted or on plaques, over or beside the doorway, sometimes choosing the Ten Commandments or other passages.
Many Karaite Jews read the commandment more figuratively and generally hang a plaque with the Ten Commandments rather than a scribe-written scroll of the two Shema passages.
The commandment comes from Deuteronomy 6:9 and 11:20: write these words on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. The scroll holds exactly those two paragraphs, which are also the first two paragraphs of the Shema prayer. The earliest physical mezuzot are fragments from the Qumran caves, dated to the Hasmonean era. The Talmud set out the rules still followed today: which doors need one, how it is written, and that it be checked twice every seven years.
Over the centuries many Jews came to see the mezuzah as protecting the home, and the divine name Shaddai, written on the back, is read as an acronym for Guardian of the Doors of Israel. Maimonides in the 12th century sharply criticized people who added angel names or treated the mezuzah as an amulet, insisting it is a reminder of God's oneness and love. In the United States, disputes over condo rules banning mezuzot led to protective state and local laws in the 2000s.
An open right hand, often with an eye in the palm, hung in the home or worn to push back the evil eye and bless a household.
A loaf and a little salt carried into a new home or offered at its door, so the household will never go hungry and life there will keep its savour.
An Epiphany custom in which Christians write the year, crosses and the letters C, M and B in chalk above the front door. The letters stand for the Magi Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar and for the Latin blessing Christus mansionem benedicat, May Christ bless this house.
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