0335 - Not Printing Rashi with Square Letters - Mendelson

00:01 There was a young man who lived in Miami for a while. His name was Mendelssohn, and he took upon himself a project of re-typesetting the Shas, that was making the same Seder of Shas, but retyping it and making a new print of Shas. He was gonna do that. He actually, in 56vv, 56z, and he started doing it, and he even made a sample of the beginning of Mesachtah Bab Metziyah, and he put in the Gilian on the side of the Gemara that he was printing. He even put in the Rebbe's beer and the Schneimerzin, the Seferet came out with the Rebbe's beer and Schneimerzin. He put it into that. That was just a sample of what he was going to do by reprinting the Shas, the Gemara, Rasha, Tesras, everything would be a new print. The Pearl Mames, she didn't do much, she didn't work out, but this is what he was, his project was. So around Tovshin on Gimel, I think it was, but it definitely was after the Rebbe had the stroke already. When he was starting to think about this project, he comes over to me and he says, since he knows that the Rebbe wanted that a lot of Sforim who are printed in Rasha Asius should be reprinted in blocked letters. And we see that they look at the Torah, the Torah, other Sforim which were printed originally in Rasha Asius. The Rebbe wanted it should be reprinted in blocked letters because it makes it clearer, and it makes it

01:18 easier to learn. And the Rebbe always wanted that things should be easier to learn. So the Rebbe wanted these things. So he tells me, so he thinks when he's gonna start reprinting the Shas, he's gonna make the Rasha in blocked letters rather than in Rasha Asius. So he asks me, what do I think about it? I think it's a good idea or not. So I told him, I think that even though everything else the Rebbe wants it should be blocked letters, but I think when it comes to print Rasha, I don't think that it's right to change it and not print Rasha, which we call Rasha Asius. Even though Rasha Asius doesn't mean that Rasha wrote in these Asius, in these letters. It was because the printer who printed Rasha originally used these letters. That's why it's called Rasha Asius. But nevertheless, since by Eden it's known as Rasha Asius, I don't think it's a good idea to reprint the Rasha and Gemara with printed Asius with blocked letters rather than Rasha, what we call Rasha Asius. What he did was he asked the Rebbe. That was after the Rebbe had the stroke already, so the Rebbe couldn't write, and the Rebbe couldn't talk to answer. But what happened was Rabbi Groner called him back and told him, this is what happened. He read the Rebbe the letter that he wrote asking that he wants to make the Rasha print the new print of Gemara with Rasha, the Rasha in not Rasha Asius, but in

02:32 printed Asius. So he asked the Rebbe if he could do it or not. So the Rebbe shook his head no. He shook it back and forth, no, that he shouldn't do it. And what he used to do, Rabbi Groner, that time to make sure that he got a proper answer, he would always ask the questions both sides. So here also he asked the question a second way. Does that mean that the Rebbe wants it should stay the same way it's still now in Rasha Asius? And the Rebbe put his, shook his head up and down, yes. In other words, the Rebbe made it very clear that he does not want that he should print the Rasha in blocked letters like this person thought. So he came back to me and he said, "You were right when you said that you don't think the Rebbe would be Maskim. The Rebbe was not Maskim, that he should print it in blocked letters, and that's why it never changed." The end was he never finished, made the Shas anyway. He just started, and it didn't work out for whatever reason. But the main thing I'm trying to point, I'm trying to make is that the Rebbe said not to print Rasha with, in Gemara at least, in, in, uh, blocked letters, but to keep it in Rasha Asius. In Negei HaChumash, I don't know what the Rebbe would say. We don't know. Didn't ask. But we're, this was, the question was asked when Negei Rasha in Gemara.