To bring blessing to a new home, we open its doors
Mazel tov! You just received the keys to your new house. You enter excitedly, taking in the layout and considering where to place the furniture. But in a Jewish home, there are preliminary matters that need to be dealt with first.
We know there’s great significance attached to the beginning of a process. In that vein, when entering a new dwelling, we first consecrate our home to be a place of Torah and kedushah.
Rav Yaakov Hillel notes that the yetzer hara works arduously to gain control over these first moments in a new home, in order to effectively impact the future environment. It’s imperative, therefore, to resist his overtures, and successfully elevate those first precious moments for kedushah. Ideally, upon entering a new home, one should immediately say Tehillim (specifically perek 30), a brachah, or do a mitzvah, to dedicate the new residence as an abode of holiness.
It’s customary to have a chanukas habayis to inaugurate a new home, and there are various opinions as to the source for such a ceremony. Rav Yaakov Hillel suggests that the custom’s origin is based on the Shivas Yemei Miluim (week of dedication) that the Jews had in the desert after the consecration of the Mishkan.
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