Rabbi Meir Peretz with the mezuzah scroll. Courtesy photo.

JNS

A rabbi in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod recently transcribed what could be one of the largest mezuzah scrolls ever written in the Jewish state for a private individual, Hebrew media reported on Tuesday, May 28. Rabbi Meir Peretz, a certified scribe affiliated with the Mishmeret Stam Institute, was commissioned to write a mezuzah measuring 22 inches—some six times the size of a regular mezuzah scroll, Israel Hayom reported

“This is a giant mezuzah, ordered by a customer with a big villa in the north. I had to make a special quill because the letters are large, and a feathered quill of appropriate size was needed,” Peretz told the paper.

“Writing the mezuzah took at least 6-7 hours,” he said. “Two stages were needed over two days to allow the ink to dry after the first stage was finished, compared to about an hour’s work on a normal mezuzah.”“I heard that there are larger mezuzot, but I don’t think anyone has made a mezuzot of this size for a private home,” added the Ashdod scribe, revealing that his client paid 1,500 shekels ($400) for the project.

Since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel and the ensuing war against the terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip and a simultaneous violent conflict with the Hezbollah terrorist organization in the north, there has been an increase in the demand for mezuzot and tefillin, stressed Peretz. In Jewish tradition, a mezuzah (“doorpost” in Hebrew) is a piece of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah held in a case that is attached to the right doorframe of the entrance to the home and in all of the rooms of the residence.

Tefillin (phylacteries) are two small black leather boxes containing passages from the Torah and are traditionally worn by Jewish men during morning prayers—one on the head and one on the arm.