Rabbi Reuvain Mendlowitz clarifies his position on Ksav Chabad (and my final thoughts)
Last week I posted some thoughts in response to a public lecture given by Rabbi Reuvain Mendlowitz regarding Ksav Chabad (the Alter Rebbe's ksav). I felt he did not represent the issue fairly, and since I had received questions about it from a number of people I felt it made sense to write a general response. After I posted my response on this forum, Rabbi Mendlowitz reached out to me by email and we ended up having a respectful and productive email exchange regarding the relevant issues surrounding Ksav Chabad. His position is a lot clearer to me now, and I think he also took certain things on board that I clarified with him. The purpose of the Stam Forum (at least back in it's heyday before all the whats app groups took over) was to connect sofrim from around the world, to promote achdus and build bridges, as well as to offer support and advice. In that spirit, I felt I should write a follow up post, to clarify some of the issues and misconception...

Hi Heshy,
ReplyDeleteIt appears from the picture that the top YOD of the ALEF in the word ET is not truly "stuck" to the body of the letter. Rather, there appears to be three dimensions on the inside such that this top YOD doesn't meet the GUF of the letter in a wedge shaped fashion resembling that of a letter "V."
Please take a closer look to determine if that the above is the case, as the resolution of the picture is not up to par. If there are three sides to the inside of the YOD, then it is evident that this YOD has a minimum YERECH and the ALEF is kasher. There is no need to scratch.
Heshy it's a bit blurry but for chabad you can fix by adding ink (tzemach tzedek)
ReplyDeletePasul for the rest of us
ReplyDeletenot so fast ...
Delete