Mezuzah code – Ask the Rabbi
Q. On the blank side of a mezuzah are three Hebrew words which seem to be in code. I cannot find them in any Hebrew dictionary. Can you explain them please?
A. The three “words” are kuzu b’muchsaz kuzu.
In themselves they have no meaning. They hint at the words of the Shema, found in the mezuzah, “The Lord is our God, the Lord” – HaShem Elokenu HaShem. Take the next letter after the letters of these three Hebrew words and you get kuzu b’muchsaz kuzu.
The phrase derives from Rabbi Yehudah Hadassi of Constantinople, a 12th-century Karaite.
Maimonides opposed innovations such as this.
