In which rooms should a mezuzah be placed on the doorframe, and in which rooms should no mezuzah be placed?
Before purchasing a mezuzah, you need to know how many mezuzahs to buy for the house, because some rooms require a mezuzah and some rooms are exempt. Here is a brief summary of which rooms need a mezuzah:
- A mezuzah is affixed in every room in the house suitable for dwelling, even if it is not actually lived in (such as storage rooms, kitchen, utility room, etc.); in any case, since it is possible to live in that space, the place requires a mezuzah.
- A roof that is occasionally used for eating, walking, hanging laundry, etc. must have a mezuzah on its entrance. But if the roof is used very rarely, such as for repairing a solar water heater, etc., it is exempt from a mezuzah.
- A room designated for garbage — even if clean — is exempt from a mezuzah because it is not a “dignified dwelling.”
- A room designated for laundry, where even children’s clothes that are soiled are washed — some say it is exempt from a mezuzah; others say nowadays, since usually the clothes washed are not really dirty and are kept in a bin and these rooms are used for other purposes as well — a mezuzah without a blessing is required.
- A room designated for washing babies or changing diapers (such as in daycare centers and recovery homes) is considered a room prone to soiling and is exempt from a mezuzah.
- The toilet and bathroom rooms are exempt from a mezuzah.
- A home built on a ship, on a truck, or a mobile residential structure (caravan) that moves from place to place is exempt from a mezuzah. Also, trains or airplanes that have rooms designated for sleeping are exempt from a mezuzah.
- The size of the room required for a mezuzah is at least four cubits by four cubits. In modern measurements: 192 cm by 192 cm.
How do you put up a mezuzah? How do you install a mezuzah?
Many ask – how do you put a mezuzah on the door? How do you install a mezuzah? The answer is that the mezuzah is placed on the right side of the entrance to the room or house, in the upper third of the doorpost. Sephardim customarily affix the mezuzah upright, while Ashkenazim and Moroccan Jews tend to tilt it slightly diagonally. And if the mezuzah was placed on the left side of the entrance – it is invalid (Shulchan Aruch Yoreh De’ah Siman 287 Sif 2) and must be removed from the left side and re-affixed on the right side.
And it is necessary to attach the mezuzah firmly to the right side of the doorpost so that the mezuzah does not fall, for example with nails or glue. Before affixing the mezuzah, one should bless: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to affix a mezuzah.” Even when affixing several mezuzot, one blessing covers them all.
The mitzvah of the mezuzah is great and mighty, as it is mentioned every day in the morning and evening Shema by Jews all over the world for thousands of years when saying, “And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
It is brought in Tikkunei Zohar (Tikkuna 18, page 25): “The secret of the mezuzah (this is the secret of the mezuzah) that is stated in it (that it says) ‘And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house’ – mezuzah is written with the letters zayin and zayin, which also mean death,” so says the Zohar. In other words, the mitzvah of the mezuzah has the power to move away death.
And the Mordechai wrote in the name of Maharam: “And I am sure that any house properly fixed with a mezuzah cannot be ruled by any evil force.”
The Choshen Mishpat writes: “When the mezuzah is written correctly, the protection of the Blessed Hashem envelops the house.”
וImportant to know: All the protective virtues of the mezuzah exist only when the mezuzah is kosher according to halacha; therefore, it must be purchased from a trustworthy store whose owner is known to be God-fearing. And the person should bear in mind that the mezuzah contains 713 letters, and each letter can have several different forms that might invalidate it. If there is, God forbid, an invalid letter among the 713, the mezuzah is invalid according to halacha.
In any case, a person should not intend when affixing it for protection or to receive reward in the World to Come; rather, his entire intention should be to fulfill the commandment of the Blessed Creator (Sefer Yalkut Yosef Chuppah and Kiddushin p. 227).