Q&A: Mezuzah on a Balcony
Mezuzah on a Balcony
Question
Hello Rabbi,
A few questions regarding a mezuzah on an open balcony with no additional entrance to the outside or inside:
On which side should the mezuzah be placed on the balcony—on the right side for someone going out from the house to the balcony, or on the right side for someone returning from the balcony to the house?
Does one recite a blessing?
If there is a sukkah on the balcony in which people sleep, does the law change?
A storage room that people do not sleep in—does it require a mezuzah, and is one obligated to recite a blessing?
Thank you very much,
Answer
It is placed on the right side of one entering from the balcony into the room (the more important room is what determines it).
A sukkah does not change the law regarding mezuzah.
A storage room, if it has an area of 4×4 cubits, is obligated in mezuzah and requires a blessing.
Discussion on Answer
I don’t know which is considered more important. The custom is to place the mezuzah according to the order of entry into the house. Meaning, when you go in from the main door inward, if the living room comes first and from there you enter the bedroom, then that is the direction for placing the mezuzah (that is, on the right when entering from the living room into the bedroom).
By the way, I don’t recall any exposition deriving a bedroom from “when you lie down.”
Thank you very much.
According to this, is a bedroom considered more important than the living room, since the mezuzah is placed on the right side of one entering the bedroom?
(I understood that “when you lie down” is linked to “mezuzot” to say that the main mezuzah obligation is in a place where one sleeps.)