The laws of mezuzot continued TB Yoma 11

Groucho : You call this a barn? This looks like a stable.

Chico : Well, if you look at it, it's a barn. If you smell it, it's a stable.

Groucho : Well, let's just look at it. (From the movie Monkey Business)

Today’s daf TB Yoma 11 is the major source for the laws of mezuzot. The phrase “Actually they said-בֶּאֱמֶת אָמְרוּ” means that everybody agrees that the following is the halakha. The Talmud Yerushalmi attributes these laws going all the way back to Moses upon Mount Sinai as the reason why there is no disagreement.

“Actually they said: There is a legal tradition that a building housing a bathroom, and a building housing a tannery [burseki], and a bathhouse, and a building housing a ritual bath for immersion,…are exempt from the obligation of mezuza.”  (Sefaria.org translation) the Gemara adds that a cattle barn is also exempt from a mezuza. Remember that the scroll inside the mezuza contains passages from the Torah written with kosher ink, with a quill, and on parchment. A bathroom, a tannery, and a cattle barn all have a terrible smell associated with it; consequently, placing a mezuza there would be inappropriate. Obviously naked people roam a bathhouse and mikvah and for modesty purposes placing a mezuza there would be inappropriate. The Gemara sums up the difference between an appropriate and inappropriate place to affix a mezuza. “I might have thought that I include in the obligation of mezuza even a bathroom, and a tannery, and a bathhouse, and a ritual bath for immersion. Therefore, the verse states: House; just as a house is a place that is designed to honor people who enter it, so too, all places that are designed to honor those who enter are obligated in the mitzva of mezuza, excluding those structures that are not designed to honor.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Another qualification where a person must affix a mezuza is whether or not the structure is designed for residence. “The verse states: House; just as a house is a place that is designated for residence and is obligated in the mitzva of mezuza, so too all similar structures are obligated. This is to the exclusion of those structures that are not designated for residence but for other purposes, which are exempt from the mitzva of mezuza.” (Sefaria.org translation)

The nature of the structure is the final qualification where a person must affix a mezuza. “I might have thought that I include in the obligation of mezuza even the Temple Mount and its chambers and courtyards. Therefore, the verse states: House; just as a house is a place that is non-sacred, so too any place that is non-sacred is obligated in the mitzva of mezuza, excluding those places that are sacred.” (Sefaria.org translation)

The three qualifications a structure needs to acquire a mezuza are:

1.     It is designated for dwelling.

2.     It is designated to honor.

3.     It is designated for non-sacred purposes.

We also learned how frequent a mezuza should be checked according to rabbinic law.  “The mezuza belonging to an individual is examined twice every seven years to determine whether it was stolen or became disqualified. And in order to avoid excessive burden on the community, the mezuza belonging to the public is examined twice in a fifty-year Jubilee period.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Interestingly enough the Gemara teaches that a synagogue does not need a mezuza unless it has a dwelling attached with for the hazzan, the caretaker, but it is our custom to affix a mezuza on synagogue doors.(Shulkhan Arukh, Yoreh De’ah, 286:3)