This story bears repeating… A health inspector visited Assaf Harofeh Hospital in the center of Israel (near Rehovot).

A Mezuza is a positive commandment in the Torah (Jewish Bible) to affix a portion of the Torah in a scroll to the doorpost of every room in a Jewish owned home or public facility. There is an additional custom to kiss a mezuza as you pass thru the doorway. Even some non-religious Jews in Israel are accustomed to kissing the mezuza as well.

The problem is, as infectious diseases go, passing by hand to mouth is the second most surefire way to infect. (The most surefire is intravenous, so they say). In walks the health inspector and checks 70 of these mezuzas at a hospital in Israel and found that every single one of them was infected with a disease of some type or another.

The story doesn’t end here… The Masorati movement in Israel (Conservative) under the leadership of Rabbi Simcha Rott, has issued a religious ruling that it is not permitted to kiss mezuzot for fear of being infected. No word yet from the Orthodox rabbinic leaders…