Morning View - My Mezzuzah

Since today is Yom Kippur, I thought I'd show you my mezzuzah. Mah-mah-mah-my mezzuzah. It's my-i-i-i-i-whoa! (Sorry.) According to the rules, a mezzuzah must be affixed to the right side of a home's door frame, on the upper-third of the frame within three inches of the doorway opening. There's a little scroll of Torah verses inside mezzuzahs, whose presence on Jewish homes is commanded by Deuteronomy 6:9. It's a mitzvah, like not wearing flip-flops or Crocs should be.

Anyway, the mezzuzah was there when I moved in. Every apartment in my building has one - I do live on the optimistically named United Jerusalem Place, after all. I'd guess pretty much every apartment on the Upper East Side rocks the mezzuzah, not just those on streets named after hopeless causes.

I think Little David, my go-to man for all things musical theatre and Judaism, once told me that you're supposed to leave the muzzazah when you move out, but put a new one up when you move in. I would have asked him before making this post, but he's busy today fasting and avoiding electricity. (Check out David's rules for Yom Kippur.) Anyway, I suppose I would have taken mah-mah-mah-my mezzuzah down, being a "militant" atheist and shit, but it's more of a funky New Yorky thing to me than a piece of religious iconography. Plus, I've altered its contents to make it uniquely mine - now there's a little rolled-up Tom Of Finland drawing inside.