We had a shailah on three words on the first wide line Lamed Beis Amud Beis - Telo'oh Be'makel Pesulah. Now typically a chefetz is Posul and not a 'situation'. We get that the mezuzah is not permanent and therefore you haven't performed the mitzvah of mezuzah per se - it is not Bishorecha. But then the gemorrah should say 'lo Yotzah' in relation to ones performance of the mitzvah of mezuzah.
Why is the mezuzah posul just because it is wrapped around a stick? Surely the piece of parchment is at 'worst' kedusha-filled in that it could be used for learning from and indeed contains Hash-m's name. At best, take the parchment off the stick and place it properly on the wall as a kosher mezuzah. Why say it's posul? Does that not imply it's 'useless' as an item?
Do you have any suggestions?
Beinish Ginsburg, Bet Shemesh, Israel
That is a very interesting observation!
I want to answer based on the Gemara in Sukah 2a, which states that the reason why the Mishnah there says that a Sukah higher than 20 Amos "is invalid," while the Mishnah in Eruvin says that a Mavuy higher than 20 Amos "must be lowered," is that Sukah is mid'Oraisa and thus the word "Pesulah" is appropriate. Rashi explains that "Pesulah" means that the Sukah has not been made according to the Torah and the Halachah. Similalry, we can say that if one hung the Mezuzah on a stick, one has missed a Torah Mitzvah and therefore the word "Pesulah" is used. If the words "Lo Yatza" would have been used, people might have made a mistake and thought that this means that one has fulfilled the Mitzvah Min ha'Torah but were merely not Yotzei mid'Rabanan.
The Gemara there in Sukah says that if a Mitzvah is mid'Rabanan, the Mishnah teaches how to rectify it. Therefore, in Eruvin the Mishnah tells us to lower the Mavuy which is too high. In contrast, the Gemara here in Menachos discusses a Mezuzah which has been hung up in a way that is wrong mid'Oraisa, so it is not sufficient to teach how to do it the proper way, but instead we stress that it is totally invalid at the moment. It is true that the parchment possesses Kedushah and could be used for learning from, but that really is not what interests us at the moment. If we do not make it very clear that the Mezuzah is Pesulah, somebody might have this Mezuzah hanging on the stick for the rest of his life and he would never fulfill the Mitzvah of Mezuzah!
(I found that the Netziv of VolOzhin asks a similar question to yours in a somewhat different context. Rav Achai Ga'on, in She'iltos on Parshas Ekev #145, writes that if the Mezuzah was written like an Igeres, then "Lo Yatza." The Netziv, in Ha'Emek She'eilah #4, asks why the She'iltos changed the wording of the Gemara, which states "Pesulah" and not "Lo Yatza." The Netziv explains his question to mean that "Pesulah" is apporpriate when the Mezuzah is itself Pesulah and there is no way of rectifying it. In contrast, if the parchment was written properly but it was fixed on the door in the wrong way, it would be more appropriate to say "Lo Yatza." This is your argument. See there how the Netziv answers his question.
Kol Tuv,
Dovid Bloom