Tel Aviv Basketball Team Discovers Cause of Major Mishaps: Mezuzahs

“Inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”Deuteronomy 6:9 (The Israel Bible™)

Maccabi Tel Aviv, Israel’s most successful basketball team, was plagued by a wave of five injuries in the past few weeks. They turned to Rabbi Ya’akov Gluberman, asking him to check the mezuzahs in the Menora Mivtachim Arena in which they play and practice. The hall is huge and is equipped with more than 200 mezuzahs.

Though most people associate the commandment of mezuzah with the ornamental housing, the hand-written scroll contained within is the main element. The laws pertaining to the writing of the scroll are even more stringent than those pertaining to the writing of Torah scroll and the scrolls must be maintained and occasionally checked.

Inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:9

After opening each mezuzah and checking them line-by-line, even letter-by-letter, five of the scrolls were found to be unkosher for use, all of them near the team’s locker room. The scroll on the door leading into the locker room was entirely inverted. Most surprising was the number of “injured” scrolls: precisely five, equal to the number of players who were injured.