Kabbalah Library

452. “And you shall write them on the doorposts of your home and of your gates.” Mezuzas [boxes with Torah texts written on a parchment, attached to doorposts and gates] is written without a Vav. However, happy are Israel, for they are always mentioned in commandment, when they sit, when they walk, when they lie, and when they rise, as it is written, “When you sit in your home, when you walk on the way, and when you lie, and when you rise.”

453. When Israel are crowned in Torah and commandments in order to always adhere to the Creator, as it is written, “And you who adhere to the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day,” and anyone who adheres to his maker is never harmed.

454. Moreover, two ministering angels accompany a person, one on his right and one on his left, as it is written, “For He will charge His angels over you, to guard you in all your ways.” Moreover, if he is always in commandment, it is as though the Creator becomes his guardian, as it is written, “The Lord is your guide.”

455. What did the Creator do? He took an angel who was walking on his right and placed him in front of him, and He stood in his place, as it is written, “The Lord is your shadow on your right hand,” and that angel who is to his left, He placed him behind the man, and the Creator is on the right and on the left. It follows that the person is guarded from all his sides. Who can harm him?

456. For this reason, one must not be without Torah and without commandments even one hour. At his home, the Creator guards him from outside, and the person is inside.

457. A door that is marked with a Mezuza, no harm-doer, no Satan, and no evil one approaches him, since the Creator guards the door even when the sabotaging angel is given permission to sabotage. He raises his eyes, sees that the name Shaddai [God] stands over the door, as it is written, “And will not let the saboteur come into your home to afflict.” For this reason, one must always be with the commandment of a Mezuza.

458. “Make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations.” How is this different from Shabbat, of which it is written, “their generations” without a Vav, for it is written, “to make the Shabbat throughout the generations”?

459. They established the portion about the Tzitzit [tassel on the edge of a garment] in the Shema reading. By what is he completed? When a person wraps himself with a Tzitzit at his home, and goes out the door with it, he is completed.

460. The Creator is happy with him, and the angel of death moves away from there, and this is “throughout the generations,” that he will be complete. He comes out the door of his home with this commandment, and the sabotaging angel moves away from there, and the man is saved from any harm, as it is written, “Mezuzot,” whose letters imply Zaz Mavet [death moved], that he was not given permission to sabotage and he moved away from his door.

461. On Shabbat, it is written, “throughout the generations,” since because he sanctified the day, the abode of Israel should be with a burning candle, a set table, a made bed, and their apartment fixed like a broom’s apartment ready to receive the bride in it.

Shabbat is a bride. She is always admitted only into an apartment fixed in her honor, as is worthy of her, as it is written, “To make the Sabbath.” “Throughout the generations,” to admit a holy bride into her apartment and to be in it.

462. When he sanctifies the day and that bride comes and does not find a fixed apartment and a set table, and a burning candle, that bride says, “This apartment is not from Israel.” It is written, “between Me and between the children of Israel,” and this one is not from Israel; his apartment is not for holiness. For this reason, there must be a recognition of holiness in the house, and it is written about this, “throughout the generations,” with Shabbat and with Tzitzit.

463. One who exits one’s home with a cloak of commandment and Tefillin on his head, when he walks out between two gates, the gate of his home and the gate of the house of assembly, the Shechina comes to him and two angels stand over him, one to his right and one to his left, and they all accompany him until the house of assembly, and bless him. And the slanderer who stands before the doors of people’s houses walks behind them, and against his will replies “Amen” to their blessings.

464. Remember and Keep are the whole of the Torah. Remember, ZA, contains 248 commandments to-do. Keep, Malchut, contains 365 commandments not-to-do.

Remember is the portion Mezuza. Is Mezuza not female, Malchut, and remember is ZA? Of course Mezuza is female, but this portion, Remember, is incorporated in the Mezuza, female. Keep is Tzitzit.

465. When a person comes out the door of his house, he comes out with Tefillin, which are incorporated in Remember, and with them the Tzitzit, Keep, and at the door of his home he encounters the Mezuza, which is incorporated in Remember, and the Tzitzit in his garment completes the rule Remember.

466. But the Tzitzit is not at the door, so how is there only Remember, which is a Mezuza? After all, we learned that Remember and Keep are one, that there is one without the other. However, a Mezuza contains Remember and Keep. Remember and Keep were said in one verse, and are as one, and a Mezuza is a collection of the two of them, male and female together.

467. A Tefillin of above, of the head, are regarded as Remember, and the hand Tefillin are Keep. They are incorporated in each other, which is why Assiya, Malchut, is written only in Tzitzit, “and let them make themselves a Tzitzit,” which is Keep, Malchut, and it all follows as one.