Study Menachot folio 33B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
and what is the meaning of the phrase: The beginning of the upper third of the entrance, that Shmuel says? This is referring to the maximum distancing of the mezuza from the doorframe, i.e., that one should not distance it from the upper cross beam more than 1/3rd of the height of the entrance.
§ Rava says: It is a mitzva to place the mezuza in the handbreadth adjacent to the public domain. The Talmud asks: What is the reason for this? The Rabbis say that it is in order that one encounter the mezuza immediately upon one’s entrance to the house. Rav Ḥanina from Sura says: It is in order
The Talmud adds: R' Ḥanina says: Come and see that the attribute of flesh and blood is not like the attribute of God. The attribute of flesh and blood is that a king sits inside his palace, and the people protect him from the outside, whereas with regard to the attribute of God, it is not so. Rat
Rav Yosef, son of Rava, taught in the name of Rava: If one dug one handbreadth deep into the doorpost and placed a mezuza there, it is unfit. The Talmud suggests: Let us say that the following baraita supports his ruling: In a case where one affixed a mezuza deep in the wooden doorpost of an entra
The Talmud deflects the support: When that baraita is taught, it is referring to an entrance that is behind the door, i.e., there is another entrance on the other side of the framework, which serves for both entrances. The baraita is teaching that if the framework is one handbreadth thick, then ea