scrolling through mezuzahs bc i need one for my university dorms. there’s so many pretty ones, people are so creative.
but whats that?
a p’ezuzah. imagine you’re visiting your jewish neighbors, and you reach up to kiss the mezuzah on your way in, and you kiss homer simpson. jewish buzz lightyear. or imagine having to explain to goyim the darth vader in the doorway with a star of david, like yes that does have important scripture inside of it and yes we must kiss it. yes it is darth vader. single handedly the funniest thing ive seen today im ordering a buzz lightyear
Jewish culture is moving into a new house and going to put your mezuzah up on the front door, only to discover the very obvious traces of the previous owners also having hung a mezuzah there. (I don't live in a very Jewish area so this felt very special)
Galicia or Ukraine (early 20th century) | India (1907-64) | Europe (19th century)
New York (1960) | Europe (19th century) | New York, United States (1960)
New York (1958) | Mumbai, India (early 1980s) | Central Europe (late 19th century-early 20th century)
non-jews don't get an option bc that'd be the most selected one by far and i wanna have a clearer distinction. this poll is only open for a week, y'all can wait
if you do more than one of these, select whichever one you think you do more, or that you feel more intentional about. or just do "other"
Look what I made! Lego character mezuzah cases have been around for a few years (I have a Wonder Woman one), but I wanted to find a way to combine my Jewish pride and observance with my passion for Phantom (and not just in my longfic, All Vows which has major Jewish themes).
The Lego face even has a deformity, yellow eyes, and I also found a little set of tails.
I made a few, if you or anyone you know would be interested, let me know :)
To celebrate my conversion a dear friend gifted me with a mezuzah and klaf, the mezuzah matching my Shabbat candle sticks and the Kiddush cup he gave me for Hanukkah.
To say that I am touched would be a woeful, woeful understatement…
So the mezuzah ask got me thinking: would it be weird if a nonreligious jew put up a mezuzah? I am ethnically Jewish, grew up with parents who practice messianic Judaism, and have done much research on Judaism on my own; suffice to say I feel fairly connected to my jewish identity, despite dabbling in a variety of religions and mainly considering myself agnostic. My family used to have a mezuzah, but between moves it was either lost or my mother chose not to put it up again for some reason. I would really like to put one up again, or at least purchase one for my own home one day as a way to connect better with and indicate to others the fact that I am Jewish. However, I worry that this may be disrespectful since I would not believe in the sacred text inside the mezuzah.
It's not weird at all to hang a Mezuzah even if you're not religious and/or observant (observant ≠ religious). It's a marker of a Jewish home and your connection to your people. There are plenty of atheist and agnostic Jews who have a Mezuzah.
I just visited my cousin and his wife last week, and they are not observant and not very religious, and his wife professed that she's an atheist. But they have a Mezuzah on their front door and always make sure to buy fresh challah for Shabbat, because Judaism is about what you do not what you think.
Just make sure that the Mezuzah you get is genuine and contains the proper text (the Shema prayers) on parchment and doesn't have any Messianic Christian symbols or words.
Here are the mezuzah cases that E's wife gave to us. One of them still has a very damaged scroll inside. We're consulting with the very small local Jewish community on how to properly dispose of it.
The mezuzah was also an object of suspicion, and at the same time desire. That it was regarded as a magical device by Christians we know, for a fifteenth-century writer admonished his readers to affix a mezuzah to their doors even when they occupied a house owned by a non-Jew, despite the fact that the landlord might accuse them of sorcery. Indeed, the Jews in the Rhineland had to cover over their mezuzot, for, as a thirteenth-century writer complained, “the Christians, out of malice and to annoy us, stick knives into the mezuzah openings and cut up the parchment,” Out of malice, no doubt—but the magical repute of the mezuzah must have lent special force to their vindictiveness. Yet even Christians in high places were not averse to using these magical instruments themselves. Toward the end fourteenth century the Bishop of Salzburg asked a Jew to give him a mezuzah to attach to the gate of his castle, but the rabbinic authority to whom this Jew turned for advice refused to countenance so outrageous a prostitution of a distinctively religious symbol.
Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion; The Legend of Jewish Sorcery
One of the things I love about having a Phantom mezuzah is that I touch it and press my hand to my lips every time I pass it so poor unhappy Erik is getting a lil kiss every time someone walks by.
Lego Phantom Mezuzah cases and individual Lego characters only now available on PhantomJudaica. Use discount code: tumblr for 18% off the entire store!
He now has a cape, and sleeps in a coffin. My next project is to put tiny little appliqués on the cape.