Kosher Mezuzas and Divine Protection
You must of heard about the connection between having Kosher Mezuzas and Divine Protection. There are countless stories floating around telling about someone who had a particular problem, who went to a Rabbi or to a Rebbe, and he told them “Check your Mezuzas”. And sure enough one of the Mezuzas was no good, and sometimes that which made the Mezuza not Kosher was in a word which relates to the original problem that the party had. And then they fixed the problem, or replaced the Mezuza, and then everything got resolved and they lived happily ever after.
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A Kosher Mezuza on the Doorway
The truth is that to put up a Kosher Mezuza on the doorway (and check it once every couple of years) as Fire and Theft Insurance is not really the right attitude. The Mezuza is one of the Commandments in the Torah that the A’lmighty told us that we should do, and we should do it because He said so, to listen to the King, and not for the main purpose of receiving the fruits. (Source: Tur YD 285)
Birchas Hamazon
A similar example, some say that to “bentch”, (to recite Birchas Hamazon, the Grace after Meals), with concentration will bring as a result a blessing in material wealth. Here also the right thing to do is to bentch with concentration because G-d said so, not for the main purpose of receiving material wealth. The wealth will come anyway if he is worthy, and indeed bentching with concentration will help, but that shouldn’t be the motivation for bentching with concentration.
So too with the Mezuza, the motivation should be to fulfill the A’lmighty’s Will. Don’t worry about the Divine Protection, it will come if it is supposed to, and having a Mezuza will certainly add to your merit. But making that your main motivation will not help the cause so much. If anything, having the motivation to fulfill the Will of the A’lmighty will help more.
The Proper Fulfillment of Mezuza
The idea that the proper fulfillment of Mezuza brings as its outcome an “in-this-world reward” makes sense. In that since the idea is not just to put up the Mezuza and then that’s it, rather to think about it when you pass through the door each time (like the Rambam writes at the end of H. Mezuza), so then the Mezuza instills in us a constant awareness that the A’lmighty, who is One, is He who watches out over us and guides our every step.
The above quoted Tur brings there an idea from the Talmud, that a human king sits inside and his servants guard him from outside. Not us, even when we are asleep inside, the A’lmighty stands guard, so to speak, on the outside. So therefore when a person properly fulfills the Commandment of Mezuza, this Divine Guidance and Protection express itself in a revealed sense. [I chose my words in that funny way because, of course, even when a person is a sinner, r”l, still G-d stands over him, so to speak, and protects him. Just that this protection expresses itself in a different way. A parent of children understands this better than one who does not have children, but the matter is lengthy, and this is not the forum].
Boruch Rappaport
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