Welcoming God

May 24--The Hasidic rabbi of Kotsk was once asked, "Where is God?"

The rabbi answered: "Wherever God is permitted to enter."

The symbols that pervade a committed Jewish home are there to help us bring God inside.

The primary symbol, the one on every Jewish doorway, is the mezuza.

This small container holding a piece of parchment known as a klaf is inscribed on one side with the word Shaddai, a name of God and also an acronym for shomer daletot Yisrael, "guardian of the doors of Israel."

A God-centered home is the source of identity, education, affection, and recognition.

On the other side are hand-inscribed passages from the Torah including Deuteronomy 6:4-9: "You will love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You will teach them diligently to your children, and you will speak of them when you are sitting at home and when you go on your way, when you go to sleep and when you rise up...you will inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and upon your gates."

A mezuza is affixed to the upper right-hand side of the doorpost (mezuza literally means "doorpost" in Hebrew, the original language of the Torah) of every room inside a Jewish home with the exception of closets and bathrooms.

When Jews move into a new home, they recite a special blessing upon hanging a mezuza. Every time they walk through a doorway, it is customary for Jews to touch fingertips to lips and transfer a kiss to the mezuza. This is a way to connect to the declaration of faith contained within the passages of Torah preserved inside it.

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