From the desk of Melech Michaels
How can it be that someone walks into a Judaica store, purchases a mezuzah for $30 or a set of tefillin for $250, and after a few years when he gets them checked, the sofer tells him that they were never kosher?
Retzuous must be black. This is a halachah l'Moshe m'sini (a law passed down from Moshe but not written in the Torah).
Although the common minhag is that we don't attach an eitz chaim (wooden pole) to the megillah, many people ask me to put one one for them.
What A Mezuzah Consists Of: Places That Require A Mezuzah: Where To Put The Mezuzah: The Blessing: Other Considerations: Sacred Space
Tefillin and mezuzos in this category are extremely common. It can be challenging to explain to people why tefillin and mezuzos that are not completely posel should nevertheless not be used.
Recently I was checking mezuzos at a home in Bergen County. The customer had eight mezuzos of which one of them is in the above picture. A few points are in order. First, they all had the little sticker which you can see in the picture.
You don’t need to have any special education in safrus to know that these parshios are pretty bad. As always, the person who brought them to me wanted to know why somebody would sell something like this.
