Door-posts

Door-posts (Hebrew mezuzôt) are the vertical structural members flanking the entrance of a room or building and carry significant religious and covenantal meaning in the Old Testament. In Exodus 12:7, God commanded Israelite families to apply the blood of the Passover lamb to the two doorposts and the lintel of their houses, so that the destroyer would pass over them—the event commemorated annually in the Passover. This inaugural use established the doorpost as a threshold marker of covenant belonging.

Deuteronomy 6:9 (and 11:20) extends this symbolism by commanding Israel to write the words of the Shema on the doorposts of their houses and gates—the instruction that gave rise to the Jewish mezuzah practice of affixing a small scripture scroll to the right doorpost of every entrance. Additionally, Exodus 21:6 and Deuteronomy 15:17 prescribe the doorpost as the place where a voluntary slave was to have his ear pierced with an awl as a public sign of permanent bond to his master.