Ruling to the Ministry of Justice. Rabbi Yosef (Photo: Yonatan Zindel / Flash 90)
The Ministry of Justice debated a halakhic issue regarding the determination of mezuzahs, they referred the question to their colleagues in the rabbinical court and they referred the question to Rishon Lezion Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef to decide.
The new Ministry of Justice building is being built in the Government Quarter in Jerusalem. It is a huge 18-story building, with hundreds of rooms, which will centralize all the office units scattered throughout the city. Towards the completion of the building a question arose as to the setting of the mezuzahs in the various rooms.
The new Ministry of Justice (illustration, firm from Shinar Architects)
Sephardic or Ashkenazi mezuzahs? Simple or fancy?
The halakhic questions of the construction team of the Ministry of Justice were in a number of questions: First, which of the rooms in the building must have a mezuzah? Should mezuzahs be set in Ashkenazi script or Sephardic script? And how to determine the mezuzah: straight (Sephardic) or diagonal (Ashkenazi)? Another question concerned the level of compilation of the mezuzahs, on the one hand it is a government office that deserves to have mezuzahs of editions, on the other hand it is a larger expenditure of public money (it is estimated that there are about 1,200 mezuzahs in the various openings)?
In the Ministry of Justice, the workers debated how to decide, and then were reminded that they have colleagues in the rabbinical court. They referred the question to Rafi Reches, the deputy ombudsman of the rabbinical courts, and he in turn forwarded the question to the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef.
In any case, H.O. should not be dragged into controversy
When asked about the type of writing, Rishon LeZion instructed him to act like his father, that there is no difference in principle between the shape of the letters and both are kosher. But ordered that at the door of the house each man should behave according to the testimony and tradition of his ancestors. In fact, Rabbi Yosef ruled that “the majority should be followed as is done in private homes… but here that the state owns the public ministries it is impossible to determine what the majority is, and in particular that office tenants change over the years, some employees move from place to place due to their job It is not appropriate to determine which mezuzah will be determined according to the nature of most of the employees who currently occupy the building. “
“andTherefore, it seems that mezuzahs should be set in a public building belonging to the state, half by half, some of which will be in Ashkenazi script and some in Sephardic script.“In any case, it seems appropriate to consider any employee who has a permanent room to set a mezuzah according to his heritage, Ashkenazi or Sephardi.”
Also on the question of the straight or diagonal shape of the discount, Rabbi Yosef states that it is better to place it when it is upright than when it is sloping, in the entrance of the building, and in the other rooms, if the tenant wants to put it diagonally, and if not then it is better straight ” To be dragged into controversy, and can also be assumed diagonally. “
Rabbi Yosef’s ruling on the mezuzahs in public institutions
Simple or fancy from public funds?
On the question of whether to buy simple or fancy mezuzahs, when the funding comes from the public coffers, Rabbi Yosef replied, ” Of the most elegant mezuzahs, but mm since the money here belongs to the entire public, and it is known that there is no poor public, so it is right to purchase mezuzahs at least at a medium level. “
And in a halakhic question about the form of writing the affair (open or obscure) he ordered to act according to Maimonides’ method, which many Ashkenazi arbitrators took as his principle of law and even those who ruled otherwise, trained in retrospect.
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