Menachot 33a (לג.) — the Talmud in English

And we answer:

Lest you say: Since Rava said, “It is a mitzva to affix

the mezuzah

within the handbreadth nearest the public domain

[for example, if the thickness of the hollow is four handbreadths, he should affix the mezuzah within the hollow of the entrance, in the outermost handbreadth nearest the public domain. The reason is that he should encounter the mitzva immediately upon entering his home], one might therefore say that

the farther

the mezuzah is from the house,

the better

the matter is, and he should affix the mezuzah even outside, adjacent to the entrance,

it teaches us

that the mitzva is to affix it within the hollow of the entrance, and not outside it.

And Rav Yehuda said that Shmuel said: If one wrote it on two sheets,

half of it on one sheet and half on the second sheet [and some explain this to mean on two cut sheets. Tosafot]

it is invalid.

It was objected: If one wrote it on two sheets and placed it on two doorposts, it is invalid on the two doorposts of the entrance. And it follows: if he placed this mezuzah on one threshold, it is

valid.

This is not in accordance with the statement of Rav Yehuda in the name of Shmuel, who invalidated it when written on two sheets.

And we answer: The meaning is not that he placed it on two thresholds. Rather, he actually placed it on one threshold, but the mezuzah was

fit for two thresholds,

he said: He left blank parchment between one sheet and the other, so that the mezuzah was suitable to be placed with half on this threshold and half on the other [if he divided the two sheets].

And Rav Yehuda said that Shmuel said:

If you wish to know which side is considered the entrance for purposes of the obligation of

mezuzah,

follow the door hinge.

What is the door hinge?

Rav Adda said: The socket

a hole in the threshold [of the entrance] around which the door hinge turns. And we explain: What are the circumstances in which one follows the door hinge with regard to affixing the mezuzah? For example, an entrance an entrance

between two houses,

such as

between the men’s house and the women’s house.

This is a case in which a person divided his house into two rooms, one for the men to pass through and one for his wife to perform her work there in privacy. There is an entrance between the two rooms of the house, and each of the rooms has an entrance to the public domain. It is now unknown which side of the entrance between the two parts of the house is considered the way out, and which side is considered the way in to the house, where the mezuzah is to be affixed. In such a situation, when it cannot be determined which is the entrance and which is the exit, the door hinge determines the matter. On the side where the hole in the threshold is located, around which the door hinge turns, one affixes the mezuzah on the right side, which is the way in.

The Exilarch built a house

he built a house.

He said to him

the Exilarch

said to Rav Naḥman: Affix a mezuzah for me

in the appropriate place at the entrances of the house.

Rav Naḥman said to him

to the Exilarch:

Hang the doors first,

beforehand affix the doorposts—that is, the doorposts of the entrances—in the building, [for an entrance obligated in mezuzah must have two doorposts and a lintel], and only afterward will I affix the mezuzot to the doorposts.

For if you affix the mezuzot to the doorposts first and afterward install the doorposts in the building, the affixing of the mezuzah will be invalid, because this is “you shall make,” and not that which has already been made. The affixing of the mezuzot to the doorposts preceded the obligation of the mezuzah, since the doorposts are not obligated in mezuzah before they are installed in the building!

Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: If one made it affixed the mezuzah like a peg a peg that carpenters insert into a door; that is, he did not set the mezuzah upright along its length, but laid it across its width and drove it deeply into the wall it is invalid. For the mitzva is to affix it upright 10. And we raise a difficulty: Is that so? Is this not contrary to the halakha? For when Rav Yitzḥak bar Yosef came from Eretz Yisrael, he said: All the mezuzot in Rabbi’s house, all the mezuzot that were in Rabbi’s house, were made like pegs. And that entrance through which Rabbi entered the bet midrash and exited, the small private entrance Rabbi used to enter his place in the bet midrash, so that he would not have to trouble the students to stand before him when he passed in front of them, did not have a mezuzah.

It is thus apparent that Rabbi affixed his mezuzot like pegs!?

And we answer:

This is not difficult. This

which is invalid is a mezuzah

made

that was made

like a carpenter’s peg, that is, affixed across its width.

But

Rabbi’s mezuzot

were made

were fashioned

like the ankle joint,

like the place where the lower leg and foot join; that is, they were affixed standing upright. [And some explain that they were set in a folded form resembling the letter nun, like the joint between the lower leg and the foot: the lower leg is upright and the foot lies across its width, and this is how he affixed the mezuzah. The reason it is valid in this manner is that one end is upright and faces upward].

And we raise a difficulty:

Is that so?

How can we have stated that Rabbi’s entrance to the bet midrash did not have a mezuzah,

but that entrance through which

Rav Huna entered the bet midrash

was not that the entrance through which Rav Huna entered the bet midrash

was provided with a mezuzah,

and why, then, did Rabbi’s bet midrash not have a mezuzah? And we answer:

That

entrance to Rav Huna’s bet midrash

was regularly used,

as most people entering the bet midrash entered through that entrance. But Rabbi’s entrance was not used by everyone; it served Rabbi alone, who would sometimes enter and exit through it so as not to trouble his students to stand before him. There was another entrance through which people ordinarily entered and exited. The entrance that determines the obligation of mezuzah is the regularly used entrance.

For Rav Yehuda said that Rav said:

With regard to mezuzah,

follow

the entrance

regularly

used to enter and exit. That is, when there are two entrances to one room, the mezuzah is affixed at the entrance through which people ordinarily enter, and not at the other entrance. Therefore, Rabbi did not place a mezuzah at the entrance through which he entered the bet midrash, since it was not regularly used as an entrance to the room.

Rav Zeira said that Rav Mattana said that Shmuel said: It is a mitzva to affix it

the mezuzah at the beginning of the upper third. That is, after two-thirds of the height of the entrance from below, at the beginning of the upper third. And Rav Huna said: One raises it one handbreadth above the ground, and distances it one handbreadth from the lintel the lintel. And the entire entrance apart from the bottom and top handbreadth is valid for affixing the mezuzah. It was objected: One raises it one handbreadth above the ground and distances it one handbreadth from the lintel. And the entire entrance is valid for affixing a mezuzah, according to Rabbi Yehuda. Rabbi Yosei says: It is written in the passage of the Shema: “And you shall bind them

as a sign upon your hand,” and it is written: “And you shall write

them

on the doorposts of your house.” The writing is derived by analogy from the binding.

Just as the binding

of the phylacteries is

at the height

of the head, at the place where an infant’s brain is soft,

so too the writing

the affixing of the mezuzah is

at the height

of the entrance, that is, near the ceiling of the entrance. This is not in accordance with Shmuel, who said that it is placed at the beginning of the upper third.

And we explain:

Granted, according to Rav Huna,

who says that the entire entrance, except for the bottom and top handbreadth, is valid for affixing the mezuzah,

he speaks in accordance with Rabbi Yehuda,

who holds that the mezuzah may be affixed anywhere in the entrance except for the uppermost and lowermost handbreadth.

But according to Shmuel, who says

that the place for affixing the mezuzah is at the beginning of the upper third,

in accordance with whom

did he state his ruling?

Not in accordance with Rabbi Yehuda,

who said that the entire entrance is valid for affixing the mezuzah except for the bottom and top handbreadth,

and not in accordance with Rabbi Yosei,

who said that the mezuzah is affixed at the height of the entrance, that is, near its ceiling, whereas according to Shmuel it is affixed only at the beginning of the upper third.

Rav Huna, son of Rav Natan, said: In fact,

Shmuel

holds in accordance with Rabbi Yosei

.