Scenes From A Day

There's a live version of Landslide where Stevie Nicks says, "This one's for you daddy." This morning while saying kaddish that popped in my head, as I thought, "This is for you Mom." I'm staying with a friend who noticed my very early rising and asked if it was about being anxious to get to shul say the kaddish. It's actually about why I'm saying the kaddish. This week a Rabbi refered to me as a kaddish zugger. Lovely. I don't quite get the habitual angle, I want saying kaddish - like everything in my life to have meaning. But it's hard. The rabbi in shul this morning gave me the time frame. Starting time is 6:45 and ending time is 7:30, whether there's long tachanun and laining or not. Yishtabach gets reached in seventeen minutes and all karbanot are said. Sigh.

Did you ever hear the same topic discussed by two different people with a short amount of time of each other? Last Motzai Shabbos a presenter at AJOS said that someone at his own sheva brachot shared a thought based on the law of hanging the mezuzah.

There's a machloket between Rashi and Rabeinu Tam about whether the mezuzah should rest on the door post in a vertical or horizontal position. Usually we choose between the two opinions one for the psak. This case is unique, as is a combination of the two opinions: we hang the mezuzah in the diagonal position. A beautiful explanation for this is that the mezuzah stand at the frontScenes Frto of the home and is a reminder of the peace that should fill the home. The key to Shalom Bayit is compromise.

Tonight the rabbi in Shul started talking about this between mincha and maariv, how there are two opinions and we do a variation of each, mixing the two. As he was speaking i started thinking that he said this the other night, and then I remembered that was someone else, someplace else. This rabbi offered a different take, that I'd never heard before (the compromise vort is an old favorite of mine). He said he heard a theory that if the mezuzah was either up and down or sideways, during the Crusades the Christians would make a second line and turn the mezuzah into a cross. By making it diagonal this problem was avoided.

The rabbi was continuing his thoughts after ma'ariv, although I was with people and needed to leave. As I was leaving the shul, I told him the shalom bayit and he liked it and decided to add it to the shiur, Cool.