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Mezuzah & Tefillin
The parchment inside a mezuzah or a pair of tefillin is handwritten, and letters do fade and crack over the years. It is customary to have them read by an expert — and there is somebody nearby who does it.
Who checks them
In Redwood City. He checks both mezuzah scrolls and tefillin.
Ask him what it costs and how long he will need them — we would rather you heard that from him than read a number here that turned out to be last year’s.
It is customary to have mezuzahs checked twice every seven years, and many people have them and their tefillin looked at before the High Holidays. Ink is ink and parchment is parchment: a letter can crack, a corner can lift, a scroll that has spent a decade on a front door in the sun is not the scroll that went up. None of that is neglect. It is ordinary, and it is the reason the custom exists.
A scroll only does what it is meant to do while every letter is whole and in order, which is not something that can be judged by holding it up to the light. It has to be read by somebody trained to read it.
They go away for a while. Your mezuzahs come down off the doorposts and your tefillin leave the house. Ask how long when you call, so it is not a surprise.
If you lay tefillin every morning, plan for the gap. There is a pair at the shul you are welcome to use in the meantime — see tefillin, or just come by.
A doorway should not stay empty. If a mezuzah is coming down for checking and will be gone for more than a few days, it is worth having another to put up in its place. We can help with that — see mezuzah.
Not sure whether yours are due, or whether what you have is kosher in the first place? Ring the shul on 408-910-2034 and ask. There is no wrong question here, and plenty of people find out their mezuzahs have never been checked at all.
Mezuzah — getting one, having it put up, having it checked.
About the mezuzah — what it is, and what makes a scroll kosher.
Tefillin — putting them on, for the first time or the first time in years.