You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.
Deut. 11:18-21
Over the years I have had a number of Jewish friends. Most of them had a mezuzah on their front door. A little box that had a small scroll on the inside with the words of the Shema:
Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one.
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart;and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.
Only one of my friends, who grew up in an orthodox household, had phylacteries- the leather straps and boxes that held the scrolls of the Shema on their arms and forehead.
Growing up in a Christian home, I had neither. But I still think it is a good idea. To have a reminder everytime I enter my house that I am a child of God and that I have one main responsibility- to love God with all my being and to share it diligently.
The act of wearing phylacteries on our forehead and arms, the symbolic reminder that God is with us everywhere, is something we might not do literally in the modern world, but we could certainly acknowledge as a possibility. The wearing of religious jewelry, carrying verses in our wallet, even carrying a copy of the Bible on our phone or PIM.
In one of his books, Leonard Sweet suggests that the Church should “mezuzah the world” -provide marks and remembrances of what our life is about. Loving God and neighbor in all that we do.
Imagine if there was no place we could go and nothing we could do that we weren’t reminded of who we are and what our mission is. Wouldn’t our world be a different place?