PRINTED?
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...
I woulod check for any anomalies in the writing, and see if they are also present in the other mezzuzot. That would prove that it is printed. I worked for many years as a magiah in Israel. Some Bnai Brak sofrim regularly wrote just below the sirtut. They claimed that they were acting on a psak of Rav Wosner z"l. True, Rav Wosner said this was kosher, but I know of no psak that it shoulkd be done l'chatchilah.
ReplyDeletethe top of the lines are very straight and not the bottom. If he's so good that he got the top perfect he should have done the same on the bottom.
ReplyDeleteRav Vozner and Rav Ovadia were machshir (bedieved[Rav Vozner]) if written below the sirtut as long as the ksav is straight, meaning that the sirtut was used to maintain straight lines.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Rav Elyashiv and others pasel ksav written below the sirtut. Rav Elyashiv held even 3 letters below is pasul and irreparable. Some poskim permitted fixing by adding ink to the heads to reach the sirtut.
Hence, the sofer who yelled as if there was no problem is wrong. At best there's room to be machshir bedieved and if the mezuzahs belong to a shomer mitzvos should be replaced.
With regards to printing, below the sirtut is one chashash but is hardly any proof on its own.