Do · ★ Campaign 5 of the Rebbe’s Ten · order today, affix when it arrives
Put up a Mezuzah
You’ve seen them, even if you didn’t know the name: a small case on the doorpost of a Jewish home, sometimes touched gently by people walking through. That’s a Mezuzah (meh-ZOO-zah) — a handwritten parchment scroll carrying the words of the Shema, fulfilling the Torah’s own request that these words be written “on the doorposts of your house.”
In 1974 the Rebbe made it a campaign — and paired the ask with a warning the Jewish world needed: check what’s actually inside your case. Tens of thousands of homes discovered faded or printed scrolls; hundreds of thousands of real ones went up in their place.
The How
- Get a kosher scroll. This is the part that matters most: handwritten by a scribe — printed copies, and the paper slips inside some decorative cases, aren’t the real thing. Buy from a reliable Judaica source (chabad.org can point you to one). The case can be any style you love.
- Know the spot: right side of the door as you walk in, at the bottom of the top third of the doorpost, top angled into the room. (Custom: start with your front door; other rooms can follow.)
- Say the blessing, then affix it:
Baruch atah Ado-nai, Elo-heinu melech ha’olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu likboa mezuzah.
“Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d, King of the universe, who has made us holy with His commandments and instructed us to affix a Mezuzah.”
- Already have Mezuzahs? The campaign is for you too: have the scrolls checked by a scribe — custom is twice in seven years. Ink fades; a check keeps the mitzvah whole.
The Light
What it says without saying a word: a Jewish home lives here. And the tradition adds — the Rebbe spoke of it exactly this way — that the Mezuzah stands watch: a guardian over everyone inside, and over every coming and going.
From the day it goes up, every arrival home passes through the words of the Shema. Your doorway starts saying what your soul already knew.