That Mezuzah Has To Stay!

Would you dig up St Joseph after the sale of a home?

The heading is a bit tongue in cheek, but the point is real.  I recently had an experience where an uninformed (see, I can be nice) real estate agent and seller's attorney took a rather unsympathetic view on my buyer's wishes.  The Mezuzot (plural of mezuzah) have to stay!

Jewish law states that a homeowner shall not take down the mezuzot if they know that the new occupants are Jewish.  The talmud recites a story about a person who removed the mezuzot from his home when he moved and ended up burying his wife and sons. 

So, as with all good things Jewish, there are lessons to be learned...

With a bit of imagination (the other agent was no help), I was able to decipher the issue with the sellers.  They weren't especially observant and didn't know that when one sells a home with mezuzot to another person of the Jewish faith, the mezuzot need to stay.  So, once I "educated" them as to the import this was to my buyer client, they moved on to their next "objection."  They wanted money for the mezuzot, since they now felt that they were not originally included in the price of the "real estate".

Oy vey!

Now, I'm not really what you call "observant", and I have my own feelings about religion in general.  But one thing I am NOT going to mess with is Jewish law which  has been passed down from generation to generation for pretty much longer than you or I can remember.  So, without having to swallow my pride and have to explain to our Rabbi why I couldn't answer this myself (given that I too can trace my ancestors and heritage back way past any of us can remember - oh wait, I get it now "we shall never forget"), I did the next best thing.  I went to the internet for an answer.

It seems that this is a common problem amongst our brethren.  The seller has something of value, and I want it.  Well, it's not that I want it, because I really don't like your mezuzot, but you have to give them to me because the talmud says you have to (I just made a grammatical error, but screw it).

Ah! the Poskim (wise rabbinical judges) have the answer!  Both of you can save face and be mensches.  Seller, you say that you would be happy to leave the mezuzot, but would like to be paid for the value.  Buyer, you say, "thank you, but I would like to affix my own mezuzot." Basta.  Done.  The spell is reversed.

Can I take this one step further?  Ordinarily, if the mezuzot come down, new ones need to be affixed right away.  For after all, the mezuzah is considered torah and one shall never live without torah and the prayer of Shema Yisrael, which eminates from the mizvah (commandment) "to inscribe the Shema on the doorposts of your house" (Deuteronomy 6.9).  But what if the sellers want to move and take the mezuzot before the new (Jewish) family moves in?

Again, those wise Poskim have permitted that mezuzot can be taken down for such purposes as, say, painting (and the mezuzot do not need to be affixed again until the home is occupied by a Jewish family - this holds true whether you are leaving the mezuzot or the new owners are bringing their own). 

So, the story has a happy ending.  But I still don't know the answer about St. Joseph.  Do you or do you not dig him up after the home is sold?