The Journal

Ask where a house begins, and most people will point at the walls. The older answer is the door. For most of human history, the threshold was treated as the most spiritually charged part of a building. The Romans assigned it not one god but several: Janus for the doorway, Cardea for the hinges, Limentinus for the sill itself. Jewish households affix a mezuzah to the doorpost and touch it in passing. Traditional Chinese architecture raises the sill high enough that you must li