Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 86, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1908 — CONSECRATING A HOUSE. [ARTICLE]

CONSECRATING A HOUSE.

- -> : • » • What Orthodox Hebrews Fasten to the Doorpost. A dosen families of Orthodox Jews were busy moving Into a new brick tenement house on Sheriff street, In the heart of the Bast Side, when a Tribune reporter was passing. His attention was attracted by a ceremony, which seemed to center about the doorpost of one of the ground floor hats. •_ An aged gray headed patriarch was tacking a little case to the upper right hand doorpost, a halrbreaau. from the edge. It was' of tin, about three inches long and half an inch wide, and while fastening it securely in place the old man seemed to be muttering a Hebrew prayer. After the ceremony was ended the reporter began to ask questions. "Yes, it is a religious rite,” the the old Hebrew answered. "One of the most sacred of 6ur religion—the fastening of the inezuzah. No home is blessed without it, and one might better die at once than attempt to live in a flat that did not have a' Inezuzah on the doorpOsi.” | • Some of the ffiezuz&hs one finds In | the East side are of glass. Others, | more elaborate and expensive, are of { carved wood. Still others are nicely j turned, with knobs at either end. Great care is taken that unclean hands • shall never touch them. -They are tiot allowed to fair Into the hands of nomJews, if that can be prevented, for fear they will be mistreated. According to - * a rabbi 1 with whom the Tribune reporter talked, the obligation is derived from the Biblical'- passage: “And thou shalt write them on the doorposts of thy house and within thy gates.” The custom has been known since the time of Josephus, and at one time the mezuzah was supposed ' to be a powerful factor in warding off evil spirits. In the Middle Ages the ! practicing of writing the names of der- 1 tain favored angels, in addition to the passages, crept in. Maimonides, j 1 the great Jewish teacher, put a stop to the innovation after a vigorous cam- , paign, in which he preached that tfiofee who lived in houses so branded woiiid have no share in the future . world.