416. Crowns on the Letters of a Mezuzah

Tefillin, Mezuzah v’Sefer Torah 5:2

There is a mitzvah to leave a space between the sections of Shema and v'haya im shamoa as is done for “closed” sections in a Torah scroll. If space was left as if for “open” sections, it is still valid since these sections are not actually adjacent in the Torah. One must be careful with the crowns on the various letters in a mezuzah. The following letters properly have crowns:

Tefillin, Mezuzah v’Sefer Torah 5:3

In the first section, seven letters should each have three letters zayin on them: the shin and the ayin of Shema, the nun of nafsh'cha, the two letters zayin of mezuzos, and the two letters tes of totafos. In the second section, six letters should each have three letters zayin on them: the gimmel of d'ganecha, the two letters zayin of mezuzos, the two letters tes of totafos, and the tzadi of ha’aretz. If the crowns were omitted, or if one made too many or too few, the mezuzah is still valid. If the mezuzah was not written on scored parchment, if the sofer (scribe) was not careful with the “full” and “deficient” forms of words, or if he added even a single letter, the mezuzah is invalid.