Israel and the mezuza; there is a connection
By Rabbi Zushe Greenberg
Everywhere in the world, Jews wake up in the morning and open a newspaper, listen to the radio or go on-line to check the latest news in Israel.
As an Israeli citizen, I often wonder what is it about this small piece of land that draws worldwide attention?
It's amazing to think that there can be a country to which all Jews, even if they have never been there before, feel a strong, deep, emotional connection. How many people have told you that when they visited Israel, they felt in a heartbeat that they belonged; that as they walked the streets of Jerusalem, it seemed like their hometown; that when they approached the Kotel, the Western Wall, they felt tears coming?
Israel is not the only indescribable connection.
Stand at the entrance to any synagogue on Yom Kippur eve, and you will see many people who you don't see throughout the year, who may not know Hebrew and who may have little appreciation for prayer. Ask them why they are there, and they may say family obligations, Jewish guilt, etc. But these are really just rationalizations. What pulls Jews to the synagogue like a magnet?
We can even go a step further:
You are sitting on a plane, you turn to your neighbor and strike up a conversation. As soon as you find out that person is Jewish, your heart skips a beat. You suddenly feel much closer. What pulls Jews together like a magnet?
According to kabbalah, there is a thread of a G‑dly connection that runs through and unites us all and it is beyond description, due to the fact that G‑d Himself is beyond description.
We believe that when a Jew says a prayer in America, he or she can save a soldier in Israel. When a Jew does an act of goodness in one corner of the world, it also has a positive effect upon the state of the Jewish people in another corner of the world. We are all bound together with a spiritual bond.
That being the case, what can we do to help our people in Israel?
A certain mitzvah (commandment) has the ability to protect us. It is like the spiritual seat belt and safety alarm for the Jewish nation and it even works from afar. It's called the mezuza.
There is an age-old Jewish tradition that a mezuza on a doorpost brings protection to one's home. The unique nature of the mitzvah of mezuza is that it has the power to bring the protection of G‑d to the occupants of the home, when they are indoors, as well as when they are far away.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, OBM, once explained that in addition to bringing protection to the people who live in the home, the mezuza adds protection and security to the Jewish nation as a whole. When you affix a mezuza to a doorpost in your home or office, you add a new level of security and protection to the people in the land of Israel.
Let's get connected!