mezuzah
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From post-Biblical Hebrew מְזוּזָה (m'zuzá) (referring to Deuteronomy 6:9).
Pronunciation[edit]
- IPA: /məˈzuːzə/
Noun[edit]
mezuzah (plural mezuzahs or mezuzot or mezuzoth)
- (Judaism) A piece of parchment inscribed with Pentateuchal texts and attached in a case to the doorpost of a house, in accordance with Jewish law that says that “the Jews must remember the Tenth Plague and the blood on the doorposts.”
- 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow:
- Slothrop gives him the mandala. He hopes it will work like the mantra that Enzian told him once, mba-kayere (I am passed over), mba-kayere…a spell against Marvy tonight, against Tchitcherine. A mezuzah. Safe passage through a bad night
- 1988 September 2, Florence Hamlish Levinsohn, “A Special Connection With God”, Chicago Reader:
- Lubavitchers, Penansky says, believe mezuzahs need no adornment and simply wrap them in cellophane.
- 2006, Howard Jacobson, Kalooki Nights, Vintage 2007 ed., page 20:
- When Manny or either of his parents went through their front door they put a finger on their lips and then to the mezuzah on the door frame.
- 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow:
