A Winning Ticket

Chinese auctions are very popular fundraisers. The first question is why it is called a Chinese auction. Did this type of insanity really begin in China? Doubtful. Perhaps just as some people refer to a pomegranate with many seeds as a Chinese apple, a Chinese auction has a lot of prizes. Alternatively, just as China is facing an overcrowding problem, Chinese auctions are usually packed with people. The most likely explanation for the name is that all those junky door prizes are “Made In China.”

Years ago, at a Chinese auction held by a local charity, the emcee dramatically pulled out a ticket from the raffle drum and began to read the first few letters of a last name. The first few letters of this last name are rather unique, and as the emcee continued to read, the organization’s executive director came running to the stage, urgently signaling to stop the auction.

Puzzled attendees watched as the executive director quickly conferred with the event staff. It turned out that more tickets had inadvertently fallen out of the raffle drum while it was being transported to the podium, and as a result, some of the tickets had not been included in the initial draw. To rectify the situation, the executive director stated that the prize would be expanded to include the additional tickets that had fallen out.

A new winner was then drawn from the expanded pool of tickets. The individual who had initially believed that his ticket was called out earlier approached the executive director to voice his concerns. In response, the executive director patiently explained that no new tickets had been sold and that the first winning ticket pulled was invalidated due to the inadvertent ticket spillage. He argued that it would be unfair to consider the initial draw as valid since some of the tickets were not in the raffle drum at the time of the first draw.

A very similar scenario occurred many years ago. Someone organized a raffle for a silver becher. Many people participated by buying a raffle ticket with their name on it. All the tickets were put together, and a winner was drawn. After the raffle, someone checked the tickets and noticed that one participant didn’t have an entry with his name on it. The announced winner of the silver becher somehow appeased and mollified that participant. (Perhaps he might have offered some cash remuneration.) However, the losers of the raffle argued that the missing entry should be placed in the hat with all the other entries, and a new winner should be drawn. The winner of the silver becher argued that that idea was preposterous. They suffered no harm by the fact that an entry was missing. On the contrary, their chances of winning increased. The only person with a valid claim was the participant who didn’t have his entry in the raffle, and he had already appeased him.

The Chavas Yair (Shut 61) ruled, to the consternation of the winner, that the entire raffle was invalid and must be redone. He cited proof from our Gemara (Bava Basra 106b).

There were two brothers who inherited property from their father. They did a lottery to determine who would get which piece of property. After the lottery, a (long lost) third brother materialized. One of the original brothers who got the piece of land that he really wanted appeased the third brother somehow. The remaining brother demanded that the whole lottery be repeated. Seemingly, he has no claim since he was not negatively affected. Yet the Shulchan Aruch (Choshen Mishpat 175:3) rules that since the lottery was not done properly, any participant can demand that the entire process be repeated. Therefore, anyone involved in the lottery for the silver becher has the right to demand a do-over.

This ruling can turn into a tremendous nightmare for Jewish organizations. If an organization has a Chinese auction and one ticket is missing from the box, the drawing for that particular prize is invalid. They can’t just refund the money to the purchaser of that ticket. They would have to take back the prize from the announced winner and redo the drawing. What would happen if someone’s whole order of tickets was inadvertently left out? Would every drawing be disqualified?

To rule out such possibilities, some organizations print a disclaimer in their Chinese auction booklets stating that the buyer of tickets realizes that there is a small chance that something may not go as planned or tickets may be left out and that the buyer accepts that fact. No drawing will be redone. Since all purchasers of the tickets agree to abide by those stipulations, it preempts many difficult halachic questions.

Returning to the case of the becher, the Chavas Yair further rules that if someone’s name was inadvertently entered twice into a raffle, the entire raffle is invalid. This is true even if the double entry didn’t win.

The Mogen Avraham rules in a similar situation. There are some shuls where only one individual recites kaddish at a time. There was a question over who should have the zechus to recite a particular kaddish. All interested parties drew lots. Unfortunately, the lottery wasn’t run correctly, and there were two winners. The Mogen Avraham says the entire lottery must be redone. We do not just make a new lottery to decide between the two winners. Since the lottery was done incorrectly, the first determination is meaningless.

One more interesting scenario is discussed in the sefer Harei Besamim. There were two Leviim who both had yahrtzeit on the same Shabbos. One of the Leviim had previously purchased the right to the acharon aliyah for a number of Shabbasos. A Levi (or kohein) is allowed to be called up for the acharon aliyah, an additional aliyah that is added to the seven mandatory ones on Shabbos. However, since on this particular Shabbos, the Levi had a yahrtzeit, he wanted the second aliyah, which is the usual aliyah for Leviim. The other Levi also wanted that second aliyah. They made a lottery, and the Levi who hitherto had the right to acharon won the lottery. The other Levi would instead be called up for acharon. All of a sudden, the Levi, who originally had the rights to acharon, realized that this week was Shabbos Chazak. The acharon aliyah would be the last regularly scheduled aliyah (besides maftir) read in that sefer of Chumash. Furthermore, everyone blesses the person who has that aliyah with a bracha. The Levi wanted his aliyah back! He wanted to annul the lottery and let the other Levi have sheini. The ruling was that he was allowed to take his aliyah back because the lottery was made under mistaken assumptions. Had he known that the aliyah was the “Chazak” aliyah, he never would have made a fuss.