This App Will Check Your Mezuzah

It’s the best way to spot a Jewish home, but most experts agree that Mezuzahs are often unkosher or improperly placed. Not sure if a Mezuzah is valid? Pull out your smartphone and let the world’s first certified Mezuzah app advise.

Determining a Mezuzah’s validity is but one power of the newly-released Mezuzah Guide app.

To begin, a detailed tutorial helps determine which doors need Mezuzahs. Using your phone’s camera, a Placement feature guides you to the exact spot on your doorpost for a Mezuzah. The appropriate blessings can then be displayed in clear Hebrew and English letters as well as in an English translation.

Then there’s the issue of keeping it kosher. “Older and smaller Mezuzahs are likely to have invalidating marks,” explains Rabbi Yitzchak Raskin, the supporting scribe who provided the app’s content and oversight. “But even some brand new Mezuzahs are sold with real flaws.”

To validate a Mezuzah on the app, simply capture an image of the open scroll and hit Authenticate. Within 24 hours, you’ll receive an email analysis of the probable kosher status and a recommendation for further action. App users can also order brand new, checked Mezuzahs in four quality categories.

Rabbi Raskin, a respected scribe and the owner of Machon Stam in Brooklyn, NY clarifies that virtual authentication is only meant to rule out obviously deficient Mezuzos. It cannot replace a live meticulous inspection of missing, misshaped or touching letters.

“The app is a valuable assistant to anyone putting up a Mezuzah,” affirms Rabbi Raskin. But he mentions a broader payoff. “Now rabbis and community leaders can promote ‘the Jewish Security System’ with record ease, speed and confidence.”

In 1974, the Lubavitcher Rebbe launched the Mezuzah Campaign to get more families to have kosher Mezuzahs in their homes and offices. In countless letters, the Rebbe instructs recipients to check and repair their Tefillin and Mezuzahs, explaining that physical health is an expression of spiritual health.

Rabbi Meir Rivkin, Chabad rabbi in Granada Hills, CA agrees that the Mezuzah Guide app is the first and best assistant in this campaign. “I can give my acquaintances the quick, professional, transparent results they’ve come to expect in every other part of life.”

The Mezuzah Guide app was developed by Shmuel Aber of The Saber Team. Shmuel came up with the idea as a tribute to the memory of his daughter Shaina Brocha. He partnered with Rabbi Raskin for the content.

The elegant and intuitive user experience was designed by Spotlight Design, NY. Lead designer Zalman Friedman describes it as bringing “the ease and fluency of an expert to every user.”

Out in Granada Hills, Rabbi Rivkin is ready to make his rounds. “It still takes courage to knock on doors,” he admits, “but now I can speak with confidence once I’m inside.”

The Mezuzah Guide is offered for free in the iTunes store and on Google Play for Android. The Blackberry and Windows versions will be coming out next month.