Menachot 33a — the Talmud in English

And we answer:

It might enter your mind to say: Since Rava said, it is a mitzva to place

the mezuzah

at the handbreadth adjacent to the public domain [for example, if the thickness of the hollow is four handbreadths, he places the mezuzah within the hollow of the doorway, at the outer handbreadth adjacent to the public domain. And the reason for this is so that he encounters the mitzva immediately upon coming to his house], if so, there would be room to say that

[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

he places the mezuzah from the house,

the better

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

It teaches us

that it is a mitzva to place it within the hollow of the doorway, and not outside it.

And Rav Yehuda said in the name of Shmuel: If he wrote it on two sheets,

half of it on one sheet and half on the other sheet, [and some explain: on two cut sheets. Tosafot]

it is disqualified.

It was objected: If he wrote it on two sheets and placed it on two doorposts,

on the two doorposts of the entrance,

it is disqualified.

And it implies:

this—if he placed this mezuzah

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].

on one threshold, it is

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

valid.

And not in accordance with the words of Rav Yehuda in the name of Shmuel, who disqualified it on two sheets.

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

fit for two thresholds, he says: He placed blank parchment between one sheet and the other, so that the mezuzah was fit to be placed, half of it on this threshold and half on the other threshold [if he separated the two sheets].

потому что между листами оставили свободный участок пергамента, так что мезузу можно было разделить: половину поместить на этот косяк, а половину — на другой [если бы два листа были разделены].

And Rav Yehuda said in the name of Shmuel

if you wish to know where the entrance is with regard to the obligation of

a mezuzah:

Follow the door hinge indication.

What is the door hinge indication?

Rav Adda said: The hinge-socket.

A hole in the threshold [at 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 indication with regard to determining the placement of the mezuzah?

For example, an entrance

an entrance

between two houses,

houses, and for example:

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

A person divided his house into two rooms, one for the passage of men and one for his wife, so that she could perform her work there in privacy. And there is an entrance between the two rooms of the house, while each of the rooms of the house has an entrance to the public domain. Now they do not know which side of that entrance between the two parts of the house is considered the way out, and which side is considered the way in to the house, on which the mezuzah is placed. In such a situation, where there is no determination as to which is the entrance and which is the exit, the door hinge indication determines it. On that side where the hole in the threshold is located, around which the door hinge turns, they place 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: Fix a mezuzah for me

in the appropriate place in the entrances of the house.

Rav Naḥman said to him

to the Exilarch:

Hang the doors first,

first fix the thresholds, that is, the doorposts of the entrances, in the building, [for an entrance obligated in a mezuzah must have two doorposts and a lintel], and only afterward will I fix the mezuzot on the thresholds.

For if you first fix the mezuzot on the thresholds and afterward fix the thresholds in the building, the fixing of the mezuzah will be disqualified, for this is “you shall make,” and not from what has already been made. For the fixing of the mezuzot on the thresholds preceded the obligation of the mezuzah, since the thresholds are not obligated in a mezuzah before they are fixed in the building!

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: If he made it

fixed 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 into the depth of the wall

it is disqualified.

For the mitzva is to fix it upright 10 .

And we raise an objection concerning it: Is that so?

Is the halakha not so?

But when Rav Yitzḥak bar Yosef came

from the Land of Israel,

he said: All the mezuzot of the house of Rabbi, all the mezuzot that were in Rabbi’s house,

that was made

were made like a peg.

And that

entrance through which Rabbi entered the house of study

and that special small entrance belonging to Rabbi, through which he entered his place in the house of study and exited, so that he would not have to trouble the students to stand before him when he passed before them,

did not have a mezuzah.

And it is explained that Rabbi fixed his mezuzot like a peg!?

And we answer:

This is not difficult. This

which is disqualified is when it is

made

that mezuzah

like a pin,

like a craftsman’s peg; that is, they fixed it across its width.

But this

and Rabbi’s mezuzot

was made

were made

like the ankle-joint,

like the place where the calf and the foot join; that is, they were fixed standing upright. [And some explain that they set them in a folded shape like the letter nun, like the place where the calf and the sole of the foot join: the calf is upright and the sole of the foot lies across its width, and so he fixed the mezuzah. And the reason it is valid in this manner is that one of its ends is upright and stands facing upward].

And we raise an objection concerning it:

Is that so?

How can we have learned that Rabbi’s entrance to the house of study did not have a mezuzah,

but that entrance that was

the one through which Rav Huna entered the house of study

was not the entrance through which Rav Huna entered the house of study

it had

that entrance

a mezuzah,

and why did Rabbi’s entrance to his house of study not have a mezuzah? And we answer:

That

the entrance to Rav Huna’s house of study

was the regular one,

for most of those entering the house of study entered through that entrance. But Rabbi’s entrance did not serve everyone; it served Rabbi alone, for sometimes he would enter and exit through it so as not to trouble his students to stand before him, and there was another entrance through which they regularly entered and exited. And what determines the obligation of mezuzah is the regular entrance.

For Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav:

With regard to a mezuzah,

follow

the entrance

that is regular

for entering and exiting through it. That is: When there are two entrances to one room, he places a mezuzah on the entrance through which they are accustomed to enter more, and not on the other entrance. Therefore Rabbi did not place a mezuzah on the entrance through which he entered the house of study, since it did not regularly serve as an entrance to the room.

Rav Zeira said in the name of Rav Mattana, who said in the name of Shmuel: It is a mitzva to place 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: He raises it one handbreadth from the ground, and distances it one handbreadth from the beam

the lintel

one handbreadth. And the entire entrance

apart from the bottom and top handbreadth

is valid

for fixing

the mezuzah.

It was objected: He raises it one handbreadth from the ground, and distances it one handbreadth from the beam. And the entire entrance is valid

for fixing

a mezuzah—the words of Rabbi Yehuda.

Rabbi Yose says:

It is written in the passage of 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,” and writing is juxtaposed to binding.

Just as binding

of the phylacteries is

at the height

of the head, at the place where the brain of a baby is soft,

so writing

the fixing of the mezuzah is

at the height

of the entrance, that is, adjacent to the ceiling of the entrance, and this is not like Shmuel, who said to place it 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 fixing the mezuzah,

he stated it according to Rabbi Yehuda,

who holds that fixing the mezuzah is throughout the entrance except for the upper and lower handbreadth.

But according to Shmuel, who said

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

according to whom

did he state his words?

Not according to Rabbi Yehuda,

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

and not according to Rabbi Yose,

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

Rav Huna son of Rav Natan said: In truth,

Shmuel

holds like Rabbi Yose,

he is of the opinion.