Rambam - Sefer HaMitzvos: Positive Mitzvot 15, 18: Positive Mitzvot 15, 18

Positive Mitzvah 15: The Mezuzah
Deuteronomy 6:9 "And you shall write them upon the door-posts of your house and upon your gates"

Armed soldiers are posted at the gates of a palace to guard the king and his family. They carefully inspect everyone who enters the royal grounds.

Our homes are also watched over and protected.

But unlike the king protected by his guards, it is the King of kings - HaShem - who watches over us!

In Egypt, at the time of the plague killing the first born, all Jewish homes had a sign on their door-post.

HaShem passed over those homes and no one inside was harmed.

The Torah commands us to affix a special sign - a Mezuzah - on the right side of every entrance into Jewish houses and on the doorpost of every room.

The Mezuzah assures us of Divine protection.

The Mezuzah itself is written on parchment upon which portions of the Torah are hand-written by a qualified scribe.

In time, the lettering may fade and, therefore, it is very important to check the Mezuzah periodically, to insure that it still contains all the letters.

Positive Mitzvah 18: A personal Torah scroll
Deuteronomy 31:19 "Write this song for yourselves"

Do you have a personal diary or, perhaps, a special notebook that you like to write in?

Many people do.

They write down things they feel are important and later they carefully read what they wrote.

The Torah is our holy book, describing our life as Jews.

Telling us what our nation did in the past; Mitzvot we must do now; teaching us thoughts and ideas which we should adapt.

This Positive Mitzvah tells us that every Jew is commanded to write a Torah scroll.

As he writes it, he will be inspired by its lessons. It belongs to him and he will strive to fulfill the Mitzvot that he himself has carefully inscribed.

A person may hire a scribe to prepare this Torah scroll for him.

He may also purchase a letter in a Torah scroll being written. He then shares in the writing of the scroll and is united with many other Jews owning letters in that same Torah scroll.

In each journey of your life you must be where you are. You may only be passing through on your way to somewhere else seemingly more important -- nevertheless, there is purpose in where you are right now.

From: Bringing Heaven Down to Earth by Tzvi Freeman - tzvif@aol.com