Shomer Negiah again

[qatarperegrine]

We moved into our new house today. By coincidence, the geographic area that met our location requirements (walking distance to the park, the grocery store, the library, major bus routes) is coterminous with the area that is walking distance to Squirrel Hill's various Orthodox synagogues, so we seem to have become the token Gentiles on the block.

There's something kind of funny to me about leaving a land of modestly dressed women and men who won't shake my hand, only to move into a neighborhood full of modestly dressed women and men who won't shake my hand.

Today's interesting cultural interaction occurred when our movers, who are Israeli, arrived at the new house. Bringing in the first load of boxes, one of them noticed the mezuzah on our front doorway and said, "Oh! You're Jewish?"

"No," I said, "The former owners left that there."

The next time I walked through the doorway, I noticed the mezuzah was gone.

I was somewhat relieved, since I didn't know what I was supposed to do with it -- I think it's supposed to be buried, like an old Torah, but I wasn't sure.

However, then the former owners called to say they'd come by to collect their mezuzot today. So, awkwardly, we had to ask the mover if he'd taken it. He replied that it was obligatory to remove the mezuzah if the new houseowners weren't Jewish, and did not offer to give it back to us. So, I hope the former owners were just coming by to make sure the mezuzot were correctly disposed of, and not because they had any particular sentimental value!

Comments

[marialuminous.livejournal.com]

What an interesting situation when different cultures come together. I wonder if you could have told the movers that the previous owners wanted it back. I hope that turns out okay!

[jcreed.livejournal.com]

As much as I'm totally interested in respecting such benign and simple religious requirements --- like, if it were my house I was moving into and the mover asked for me to give it to them, or asked for me to give it back to the previous owner because it was surely a mistake to leave it behind --- the movers just taking it seems awfully uncomfortable to me. What if it was a piece of furniture instead?
- I'm sorry, our religion prohibits you sitting on this special chair
- But I'm sorry, I tend to prohibit people taking things out of my house without asking me first

[ikeepaleopard]

The real question is: How tacky was the muzezah?

[(Anonymous)]

so you're back in pittsburgh?