DAF DISCUSSIONS - MENACHOS 32

Beinish Ginsburg asks:

We had a shailah on three words on the first wide line Lamed Beis Amud Beis - Telo'oh Be'makel Pesulah. Now typically a chefetz is Posul and not a 'situation'. We get that the mezuzah is not permanent and therefore you haven't performed the mitzvah of mezuzah per se - it is not Bishorecha. But then the gemorrah should say 'lo Yotzah' in relation to ones performance of the mitzvah of mezuzah.

Why is the mezuzah posul just because it is wrapped around a stick? Surely the piece of parchment is at 'worst' kedusha-filled in that it could be used for learning from and indeed contains Hash-m's name. At best, take the parchment off the stick and place it properly on the wall as a kosher mezuzah. Why say it's posul? Does that not imply it's 'useless' as an item?

Do you have any suggestions?

Beinish Ginsburg, Bet Shemesh, Israel

The Kollel replies:

That is a very interesting observation!

1) I want to answer based on Gemara Sukah 2a which states that the reason the Mishnah there says that a Sukah over 20 amot high is pesulah, unlike the Mavui over 20 high which the Mishnah in Eruvin tells us must be lowered, is because since Sukah is deoraita, the word Pesulah is appropriate. Rashi explains that pasul means that the Sukah has not been made according to the Torah and the Halacha. Similalry we can say that if one hung the Mezuzah on a stick one has missed a Torah Mitzvah and therefore the word Pesulah is used. If the words "Lo Yatzah" would have been used, people might have made a mistake and thought that this means one fulfilled the Mitzvah Min Hatorah but were merely not yotzei miderabanan.

The Gemara Sukah says that if a Mitzvah is derabanan the Mishnah tells us how to rectify it; therefore it tells us to lower the Mavui which is too high. However our Gemara discusses a Mezuzah which has been hung up in a way that is wrong mideoraita so it is not sufficient to say how to do it the proper way, but instead we stress that it is totally invalid at the moment. It is true that the parchment possesses kedusha and could be used for learning from, but that really is not what interests us at the moment. If we do not make it very clear that it is pesulah, somebody could have this Mezuzah hanging on the stick for the rest of his life and he would never fulfil the Mitzvah of Mezuzah!

[2) I found that the Netziv of Volzhin asks a similar question to your's in a somewhat different context. Rav Achai Gaon, in Sheiltot on this week's Parshat Ekev #145, writes that if the Mezuzah was written like an Igeret; "lo Yatzah". The Netziv, in Ha'amek Sha'alah #4 asks why Sheiltot changed the words of the Gemara, which states Pesulah. Netziv explains his question to mean that Pesulah is apporpriate when the Mezuzah is itself Pesulah and there is no way of rectifying it. In contrast if the parchment was written properly but it was fixed on the door in the wrong way it would be more appropriate to say Lo Yatzah. This is your argument. See there how the Netziv answers his question].

KOL TUV

Dovid Bloom