Our Prized Torah

Sometimes you can find rather peculiar items offered as prizes at Chinese auctions. I once wrote about a stone from the Chofetz Chaim’s house in Radin that was offered as a prize. I remember that one Chinese auction had a used station wagon as their grand prize (kids not included). One prize I distinctly remember was a 12-bottle case of vodka. There was an asterisk alerting the attendee that there were only 11 bottles left. The office staff must have been having a hard night! Still perhaps more peculiar than that was the grand prize of a sefer Torah. It attracted a lot of interest. It was a used sefer Torah that was refurbished by a sofer in the Five Towns. I know that many small shuls put in tickets for that prize.

Is it appropriate to auction off a sefer Torah? The question was raised in the sefer Admas Kodesh. Someone had commissioned a sofer to write a sefer Torah for him. By the time the sefer Torah was completed, the intended purchaser lost his wealth and could no longer afford to pay for it. The sofer attempted to find another buyer but was unsuccessful. The sofer lowered the price several times but he still couldn’t find a buyer. The sofer came up with a plan to organize a raffle with the sefer Torah as a prize.

However, someone objected to the raffle. He argued that it was degrading for a sefer Torah to be raffled off. The Admas Kodesh sympathized with him. He argued we find a similar situation regarding a Jewish slave. In the times of the Beis HaMikdash, if a Jewish thief was caught and could not afford to pay restitution, he was sold as a slave. However, he was not allowed to be sold in a public place. There would have to be a private sale with potentially interested parties alerted to the auction. This was true despite the fact that a private auction typically has lower sale prices than public ones. The thief’s victims would suffer due to the decreased amount of money in the restitution fund. Yet out of respect for this Jewish thief, the auction was held privately. The same reasoning could be applied to a sefer Torah. If a public raffle is degrading, it should be avoided.

A possible proof for leniency was suggested from a Gemara learned in the daf last week. If someone sanctifies a blemished animal to be used as a sacrifice in the Temple, he is liable to receive lashes. It is considered a degradation of the Altar to even set aside a blemished animal for sacrifice. However, if someone sets aside a date tree to be used as a sacrifice, he does not receive lashes.

Neither a date tree nor a blemished animal can be used as a sacrifice. So why does one receive lashes only for setting aside a blemished animal? The difference is that by animals, one has a possibility of using a non-blemished animal. The fact that one specifically chose to use a blemished one is an act of disparagement. All date trees are equally invalid. The one who sanctified a date tree did not specifically choose an invalid tree.

The same difference can be made between the sefer Torah and the Jewish slave. When selling the Jewish slave, there is an option of a public or private sale. We have to choose the private one to uphold human dignity. However, the sofer who couldn’t find a buyer for his sefer Torah had no option for a regular sale. There were no buyers. With no alternative, he is permitted to conduct a public raffle. While this logic would provide a permit for the hapless sofer, it wouldn’t permit an organization to use a sefer Torah as a prize for a raffle.

The Admas Kodesh concludes that he disagrees with the entire objection to the sefer Torah raffle. He felt that there is nothing disrespectful about conducting a raffle with a sefer Torah as its prize. One could in fact argue that the opposite is true. When so many people purchase tickets, it displays kavod haTorah that everyone wants to own the sefer Torah. Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable to use a sefer Torah as a raffle prize. However, I haven’t seen a raffle for a sefer Torah in a while, so perhaps there are those that disagree with the Admas Kodesh.