challenges of round doors
There is, apparently, a construction company out there that will build you a house styled on a Hobbit hole. Naturally, an important question arises for Jewish owners of such homes: do you put a mezuzah on a round door, and if so where? The mezuzah is the scroll (containing certain torah passages) in a case that is affixed to your doorpost -- so
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Assume a circular frame around the door, strong enough to support the door and the earth above it. Add an upright * about one quarter of the way across and firmly rooted in the ground (at top and bottom!) as well as being attached to the framework of the house (which must exist, to support not only the ceiling and walls but the earthen roof as well). Hinge the door on this upright, attaching the hinge(s) to both sides (right and left, not front and back) so that as the door opens, let's say inwards, the narrower part between the upright and the frame swings outwards. You now have a hinged, circular door.
"But this is not a doorpost in the intended sense, and even if it were, it's inaccessible from the outside!" Wait for it.
So much for the post. Now though I am no scholar of halacha or Hebrew, ISTM that even without the possible halakhic exemption based on Mor U'Ketziyah Orach Chayim, a circular door ("shaped like a kippah") can satisfy the intent of the law with a mezuzah attached to the frame *that defines the doorway as experienced by the person using the door*. That is, this "frame" doesn't need to support the door, but to surround it and define the space and shape of the entrance, so that the user sees it as the place of the door and walks through it. (And the circular hobbit door-frame would be an essential structural component of the house: ¶2 above.) So IMHO attaching a mezuzah to this door frame would fulfill the intent of the law.
I'm not putting this opinion on the page at Mi Yodeya, as I don't have a login there and this kind of discussion is not an important part of my life, but feel free, if you like, to post it there yourself in whole or in part, or to refer to it, crediting me.
* (sorry: accidentally touched "SAVE")
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