. . . and you shall inscribe them upon
the door posts of your house and upon
your gates, that you be holy unto your God
and do all of My commandments. . .

T he words of the Shema and V'ahavtah have been a consistent part of my Jewish heritage. When all other prayers, melodies and rituals escaped my consciousness, the V'ahavtah remained. I have always loved the way the words felt on my tongue, even when I had no idea what they meant. I loved the way the rhythm of the melody with which I grew up would deliver these words to my lips, straight from my heart, and fill me up with a sense of belonging to both a community and a Spirit greater than myself.

Today, when I walk through a doorway that has a mezzuzah, I reach up to touch the scroll and then kiss my hand, an act that reminds me again and again of my connection to Spirit as I go about my day. For me, it is a sort of mindfulness meditation, whereby I pause to breathe and acknowledge my Source and my greater purpose in the world.

For many years I have had a vision to take the words of the mezzuzah scroll and to do exactly as we are commanded - "inscribe them on the door posts of our house and on our gates." The doorway, the gate, is the place that rests between two worlds, between the physical world and the world of Spirit. It is the place that marks the separation between the world of our home and the one of the greater community of Creation. Standing on the threshold, surrounded by these words, God asks us for our love and guides us to that love through our actions and thhe Shema and V'Ahavtah remind us to seek to bring Godliness into all that we do. The doorway is a place where boundaries are crossed - where we cross over from the private to the public, from the familiar to the unfamiliar, from our own communities to another. The Mezzuzah, which canopies the doorway, serves as a continual reminder to us of the One who guides us in those crossings every moment of every day.

May we be continually blessed in our comings and in our goings.

. . . Love me with all your heart, all your soul and with all you have. Open your heart to the teachings (of love) I am speaking to you today. Transmit the Teaching to your children. Speak them when you sit inside your house or walk upon the road, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign upon your hand, and keep them visible between your eyes. Inscribe them on the door posts of your house and on your gates. . .