What is left for us of the blood of the Pesach offering on our doorways in Egypt is the mezuzah that we place on our doors.
On the outside of every mezuzah are inscribed the letters shin, dalet, and yud. These letters spell one of G-d’s names, Shadai. Unroll the mezuzah, and in that selfsame place where that name appears, but on the reverse side, is written another of G-d’s names, the ineffable name of four letters yud and heh and vav and heh.
The name Sha-dai means “the One who said to the world Enough!” When G-d created the world, He did it in such a way that the Creation would have been continuous and unceasing. It would have gone on and on forever, expanding, becoming more and more and more. However, the Infinite Wisdom decreed that the Creation should be contained, limited. G-d said, “Dai, Enough!” Creation should go this far and no further.
Why are these two Names of G-d juxtaposed on the two sides of the mezuzah?
REACH FOR THE SKY
According to Jewish law, the reshut harabim, the public domain, ascends vertically only to approximately three feet above the ground. Horizontally, it can extend everywhere, all over the world, but it never ascends. The street is trapped within the confines of this world. The reshut hayachid, the private domain, on the other hand, has no upper limit. In the home, the sky is the limit. That is where the ineffable Name, yud and heh and vav and heh, is revealed. It is in the home that a person can ascend heavenward. However, our ascent upward is proportionate to our limitation outward. That is why Sha-dai is on the outside of the mezuzah, while on the inside are yud and heh and vav and heh, the Name that has no restrictions.
The mezuzah tells us that if we say Dai! Enough! to the street, if we make a strong demarcation between all that the street stands for and the sanctity of the home, then inside, G-d’s ineffable name, the name of yud and heh and vav and heh, can illuminate our homes and our lives.
