Ask The Rabbi

Dear Rabbi

I moved into a new place recently. The previous tenant was Jewish and took the mezuzot with him. I said the landlord needs to put up new ones. He really couldn’t care less and says it’s my problem. As far as I’m concerned if he won’t put them up I am not going to bother either. Who is responsible and how necessary is it?

Helena

Dear Helena,
It is precisely for this reason that when a tenant vacates a property it is appropriate they leave the mezuzot for the benefit of another Jewish tenant who might otherwise not care less. The landlord is not responsible for placing your mezuzot anymore than he is responsible for placing mirrors or other extremities in your home. However, it is certainly something you want to put up even before your mirrors. The Torah itself stipulates in the Shema prayer the obligation to place mezuzot on doorposts. That in itself makes it necessary. But even more so is the fact that mezuzot serve as protection over the home and its inhabitants. This is not some hocus-pocus, or something referenced only in some mystical tract. Code of Jewish Law itself (quite unusually) makes very specific reference to this. Which is why even those that have mezuzot on their home should ensure to check them regularly (once every couple of years) by a reputable scribe to ensure their kosher status. There is only one concern, as per the Christian who questioned his Jewish neighbour why his house was always broken into while the Jew’s home remained unscathed. The Jew explained about the mezuzot and the Christian promptly put some up on his home as well. Months later he came crying to his Jewish neighbour: “What a disaster those mezuzot! No one’s broken into my home ever since, but men in black hats and beards have come knocking incessantly and taken more money than thieves ever have.”

Dear Rabbi

My mother is diagnosed with a terminal illness. I have a very frosty relationship with her going back many years. I now feel guilty and need to do something about it before she passes away. What can I do?

Emma

Dear Emma,
I’m sorry about your mother’s plight. I am not sure why you’re asking me what you should be doing though. Follow your heart and do what you know is the right thing to do. Break the ice. Sure it means putting your pride aside, but when it comes to parents there never is nor should there be pride involved. I don’t know the detail of your ‘frosty relationship’ and what caused it. What I do know is, a mother is a mother, the umbilical cord is never really severed and while there are many things that can sometimes creep in and mask over it – if one is willing, it doesn’t take much to peel it all away and rediscover what may have been lost for years. Honouring parents is a paramount mitzvah such that it extends even in their passing. No matter how much we do, it can never be enough. All this should be taken into account all the more so in your mother’s current circumstances. With thoughts and prayers for your Mom, here’s hoping you can make your time together as meaningful and magical as ever.

Dear Rabbi

One of my closest friends is celebrating his sixtieth birthday party. I’m one of his more religious friends who won’t eat non-kosher. He is Jewish and is making the party in a non-kosher restaurant. I am not sure what to do about it. He would make kosher provision for me of course.

Manfred

Dear Manfred,
You need to ask yourself the following question: What’s more important to you, your friendship or your life principles? Your friend will also need to ask himself the question, “How important are my friends to me and how much do I respect them?” The point is if you’ve never gone into a non-kosher restaurant before, are you looking to compromise that now for the sake of a close friend’s party? If your friend truly respects you then he’ll know there are some lines you won’t cross and that your friendship is bigger than a one off party. You can always take him out for a drink and celebrate in your own private way. Let me stress that there are some exceptions when kosher provisions are being made, and different cases need to be weighed up on their merits but this as a general rule.

Dear Rabbi

Why are Jews not into proselytising the same way Christians and Muslims might be? Why can’t we go out there and look to bolster our numbers a little? It can only help. Instead we deter even those that want to join the faith!

Gerald

Dear Gerald,
Unlike other faiths, our mission never was about turning the world Jewish. It was and remains about making the world more truly G-d-conscious. We look to bring what you might call the “higher consciousness” principles of Sinai more fully into the world and establish them here permanently for the greater good of all humanity. Anyone can join in this cause and so they should. But you don’t need to become Jewish to do so. Judaism maintains that G-d made you as you are intended to be with the very real ability of being able to fulfil your greater Divine purpose as you are. That means that you can accept this Jewish worldview and philosophy upon yourself without taking up the rites and rituals of Judaism. We don’t need a Jewish world, or a Christian world or a Muslim world. We need a G-dly world every man, woman and child is committed to making the world a better more peaceful place, just as G-d intended for it to be.