The Outer Mission Mezuzah
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Yesterday, December 1, as the day waned, Rabbi Micah Hyman joshed about the mezuzah he had in his hand.
It wasn’t a standard mezuzah, nor was this a standard evening. For it is not every night that the world’s first Jewish pop-up record store is opened. Perhaps tonight somewhere there is a second such pop-up wonder, but there will always have been a first: Tikva Records, in San Francisco’s Outer Mission (or Bernal Heights, or La Lengua, depending on whom you stop on the street to ask).
Rabbi Hyman was visiting from the Richmond District’s Beth Sholom across town. He told the gathered that the mezuzah was made by Ethiopian Jews, and he noted that it was somewhat Rastafari in its design and construction.
He joked that he was concerned a mezuzah on a temporary structure was inappropriate, but he had consulted texts that morning and confirmed, indeed, that the passing of two full moons was all that was required, so the month-long residency was sufficient.
He worried as well that technically the mezuzah was to be affixed to the outer frame of the main entrance during the day — but those who had arrived early for the opening still had daylight enthusiasm about them, and the bright lights of Tikvah’s neighboring businesses kept the street bright, if not the sky.
And so the mezuzah was nailed to the frame with a small hammer bearing the traditional Ace Hardware emblem. There was dancing on the sidewalk.
And then we ate chopped liver
And the crowd grew larger still.
And as evening turned to dawn, Twitter and various blogs rejoiced. The photo up top, in fact, is borrowed from the @tsq2 account.
The great bernalwood.wordpress.com shared photos from the event. The second photo down from the top, borrowed from the site, shows three of the Idelsohn Society’s four founders — David Katznelson, Josh Kun, and Courtney Holt from left to right.
And Boing Boing celebrated with an announcement of tomorrow’s Ralph Bakshi talk.
As the Tikva events unfold, be sure to post photos, and to let us know about them at yelp.com and foursquare.com, as well as at the Idelsohn Society’s facebook.com and twitter.com/idelsohnsociety pages. We’ll be sure to select and post as many as possible.
Visit the full calendar of all the event occurring at Tikva Records throughout December.
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