Q&A: Maftir Jonah. Price: 1401, no less and no more. What’s wrong with that?
Maftir Jonah. Price: 1401, no less and no more. What’s wrong with that?
Question
They were auctioning off Maftir Jonah.
Someone kept raising the price…
It got up to 1400, and then silence fell…
Then someone said 1401.
Everyone laughed.
The gabbai got angry…
and claimed that this was a desecration of Yom Kippur, a desecration of the Torah, a desecration of the synagogue [and of the honorable gabbai?], and he flew into a rage.
Was the gabbai right?
After all, it was just a high bid that was a little funny.
Is it forbidden to rejoice on the day when all our sins are atoned for?
In the end, before Purim they say that Purim is like Yom Kippur.
Maybe that’s true and serious, and not just a cute homiletic saying?
Maybe it really works both ways—not only to make Purim more serious, but also to make Yom Kippur a little more joyful?
[They say that before Ne’ilah, Rabbi Yechezkel Levinstein would lock himself in his room for 5 minutes. People peeked through the keyhole and saw that he was dancing and rejoicing in honor of the atonement of the day, that we are cleansed of sin.]
The question is serious.
Answer
None of this seems to me connected to rejoicing on Yom Kippur. This is not a joke, but a desire to buy the aliyah at the minimum possible increment. I don’t see a question here. But you’re mixing up joy with frivolity. They are definitely not the same thing.