My chavrusa and I were discussing how gadolim had the amazing ability to memorize pages of gemara to the point that they had instant-recall visual recollection of all letters on the page including all commentary. There are several cases reported of how a person could by hand reproduce a missing page from an old book to enable other Yidden to learn it.

This got me to thinking about a tendency we see in some smart eccentric people in the secular world.

And I was wondering if anyone here might have first-hand knowledge of how gadolim's personal offices were organized which could help answer my question.

There seems to be a trend that there are people who's desks appear cluttered and disorganized, that noone else could find anything in them, however they themselves can pick up any book or paper from exactly where they left it, and effortly traverse with precision.

If someone B"H has a photographic memory able to remember exactly which word starts and ends each column and line of text on each of 5000 or more pages of Gemara, could it be that remembering where they last put down their car keys amidst a pile of junk mail and letters from talmidim around the world requesting teshuvos to their shailos is just as easy as remembering where they last placed the halachic commentary with a rare responsa which answers the shaila quickly?

And thus, those gadolim gifted with such memories might have tended to have what appeared to be cluttered offices to the casual observers?


And further - are there any cases where gadolim were opposed to a reformatting of text on a standard blat image of gemara simply because every Torah scholar naturally expects the page to start and end each column and line with the same exact letters?

That once Judaism standardized on a layout, our scholarship would be knocked down a notch not unlike how a person feels when they cannot find their car keys?

I can't comment on the orderliness of any gadol's desk, but certainly there has been opposition to reformatting standard texts. Even us ordinary people without photographic memory have a general recall of the approximate layout of many pages in regularly used sefarim. Therefore, almost all the new Gemoras and Mishna Beruras that have come out recently have kept the exact same words on each page and line. Also, some have objected to the Frankel Rambam on these grounds. This has been muted, however, because not so many people have such a degree of familiarity with the Rambam, and also because Shabsi Frankel did such a superb job. Recently 2 new Shulchan Aruchs have come out, the Bahir which placed the Pri Megadim on the same page as the Shulchan Aruch and the Tzuras HaDaf which maintained the old layout while retyping all the words. Here it seems to be a matter of personal preference. In general older Rabbanim who are already familiar with the old print prefer the Tzuras HaDaf, while younger ones often prefer to become accustomed to the new

I don't think you need to have a photographic memory in order to benefit from a certain Tzuras Hadaf (image of the page.) For those that review their learning and are familiar somewhat with the Gemarah, could remember about where certain Gemaras are found, thus makes it much easier to find them, by seeing the page. Otherwise, trying to find anything after you're used to a certain image of the page, if that image is changed, you don't know where to look first.