Piskei dinim of the Beis din of Crown Heights
Decades ago that beis din of Crown Heights put out a psak din about Batim of Tefillin that they should be separate all the way down to the תפר even if they may spread a bit and not be perfectly square since we measure the ריבוע when they are squeezed together.
Does anyone have a copy of that psak din?
I know that toward the end of his life, Rabbi Z.S. Dwarkin Z"L, the Rov of CH made a big esek about prudos. I'm not sure if it was an official psak or why only some sofrim in the shchunah followed his opinion (many sofrim, Rabbi Zirkind OBM beroshom, do / did not, BESHITTA, check prudos on used batim. I asked him myself)
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, the practice of busting open batim to make the prudos and then causing gaps between the batim where there is only ribuah after squeezing them together is a heter that was popularized by the late Rabbi ZS Dwarkin. It is important to understand that even to him this was a big kullah, certainly not meant to be accepted lechatchillah. Some even go as far as to say it is only kosher BEDOCHEK when you rely on the squeezing heter
The psak din the way I remember it said that you should separate them. And even if it makes them spread it's not a problem based on the שו"ת ארץ צבי.
ReplyDeleteLechatchillah?
Deletethat you should separate the batim is printed in piskai hasidur of the alter rebbe.
ReplyDeleteCorrect.
DeleteHaving said that, this practice was fairly neglected until Rav Dwarkin pushed it, as explained above.
But many reputable sofrim are / were accustomed not do this even after all the fuss was made. Why?
Rabbi Zirkind told me that when I sell new tefillin I should make sure they are prudos but when I get used ones for checking I am not obligated to check this. Although I often do, I know many sofrim who rely on him as well as many other sofrim and poskim in chabad who say when one checks tefillin one is not required to check prudos unless the customer specifically asks them to.