Chanukat Habayit

by Rabbi Goldie Milgram Director, ReclaimingJudaism.org

Putting up a mezuzzah may involve more than a blessing! When you have a new home, apartment or dorm room, consider inviting friends to a Chanukat HaBayit ritual to “dedicate your home” in their presence.

Preparation

When I transitioned from the home I raised my children in, to a new home due to divorce, my friend Rabbi Gail Diamond suggest that I see this as my new sacred space. To take on that sacred space she suggested that I clean the full house myself symbolically, since it had been done by the prior owners. Now cleaning is not really my field, as Jackie Mason might say, for this I will sacrifice other joys to hire people, so taking this on myself was no small decision.
Chesed is symbolized by water in Judaism, and gevurah is boundaries and strength. These I wanted to have in balance in this new home. So, I collected some rain water and added it to the tap water. [Much like a mikveh must have mayyim chayyim, living waters.] Then I summoned the koach (strength) to clean without resenting the task, and then damp mopped each room and ran a sponge around each of the floor boards.
In my spirit I called for the house to be filled with lots of hachnassat orchim, entertaining of guests, as I crossed each threshold, which in Hebrew is Adan, the root word of Adonai, I kissed each mezuzah and entered with the intention to be a sacred servant preparing a Jewish home to be the container for many mitzvot for HaShem.
The experience was so valuable. I felt bonded to the house through this very physical ritual. In past years I’d attended smudgings, where folks carry a bit of burning sage to drive out the energy of prior inhabitants, a la Native American traditions. I too wanted something “more Jewish.”
In any event, find some symbolic way to prepare that feels right for you. Include yourself in the preparation, water rituals are very prevalent in the Torah, there are at least seven mentioned in the Torah itself.
A kosher mezuzah scroll is handwritten by a scribe with special ink on special paper with focus and precision. This gets tucked into your mezuzah.
Have these items ready and be shore to check your door post(s) to see if they are metal or wood. Double stick tape will be needed for the former and tiny screws for the latter.
One of the names for God is “Adon,” which has the root A-D-N, meaning “threshold.” Hence, except for the bathroom where you go alone, every threshold requires a mezuzah so that your consciousness will be shifted to holiness in your relationships as you transition from one space to another.

Ritual

Choose a popular melody or verse from Torah to gather the energy of your community of friends and/or new neighbors. Or, this might be an expansion of your mezuzah practice, perhaps one for your study door, or exam room at your office or school, or a child’s room, then gather the staff, or the family. You might simply chant: Adonai. (My Lord/My Threshold).
Hold the silence at the end of the chant, it contains holiness which is filling your room/home.
Invite your friends to share their thoughts on one or more of the following:
In the Torah the reward the midwives receive for saving the lives of the Israelite boy babies are homes. What does home mean to you? You might invite your guests to share what the idea of “home” is for them. Is it possible to have everywhere you live with the qualities of what you desire to be in your “home.”
Reflect on the intentions you have for the space you are decorating – how is this home, office or room one you are making into sacred space? What does see your home as sacred space mean to you?
Pass the mezuzah around and have your friends infuse it with some of the qualities of living and experiencing would be great for filling your home. This is not a cult, they can say them aloud, in a whisper, or pass.
Now, hold the mezuzah in place, about 1/3 down the right side of the doorway as you enter, set it comfortably at about shoulder height.
Let the intentions of your heart for your home pour into the doorpost while you are holding the mezuzah in the place you will affix it.
Attach the mezuah and recite the blessing:

*Baruch atah Ado-noy*	Blessed are you My G!d/Threshold
*E-loheinu melech*	Our G!d, the Organizing Principle of
*ha-olam*	the universe
*asher*	through which
*kiddishanu*	our holiness comes in the
*b’mitzvosav*	doing mitzvah (sacred acts of consciousness)s
*v’tzeevanu*	such as the Your guidance
*Leekboah m’zuzah*	to affix a mezuzah