Buying a seat in shul for the yomtov davening

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Forum -> Yom Tov / Holidays -> Rosh Hashana-Yom Kippur

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chocolate moose ↓

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 9:09 am

My shul is charging A HUNDED DOLLARS ! We need seats for all of us; is it only me that thinks that's a lot of money?

Last year I paid $75 each and THAT was too much IMO.

Flowerchild ↓

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 9:20 am

your lucky that its only $100 by us each year its $175 for each member of the family pretty expensive

↑ chocolate moose ↓

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 9:23 am

How is that possible, Lily? Is your shul mostly professionals?

My shul is just regular people, no one is particularly wealthy.

southernbubby ↓

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 9:25 am

I buy it and get there early and sit in it. Normally I wouldn't mind if someone else sits in my "makom kevuah" but that seat that I pay for is mine and if I get up to use the bathroom and find someone sitting in it, I will remind them that that is the seat that I bought. It is worth the price to know that I have a place there.

↑ Flowerchild ↓

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 9:31 am

sephardic, and most people who attend are quiet wealthy

↑ chocolate moose ↓

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 9:34 am

Last year I had to borrow money to get me through Tishrei. (My savings account was emptied for the apt puyrchase we made in June.) I can't spend what I did last year and if seats have gone up, I can't do it.

I know DH will buy a seat for himself, no matter what. Oh, and we need a sukkah this year, too.

So much for the necklace I had my eye on...unless we want to eat chicken wings for all the meals, lol!

↑ Flowerchild ↓

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 9:40 am

I know the prices for seats are crazy thats why last year I only went for yom kippur. we cant afford to spend this much on seats its crazy money, aside from all cooking etc that you need for the holidays. so I stay home with my baby.

Mommy3.5 ↓

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 9:52 am

we paid 150 per seat last year, plus 35.00 for seats for our 3 and 4 year olds!

and the worst was there was no seat for me when I came for shofar....

Motek ↓

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 10:05 am

Mommy3.5 wrote:

and the worst was there was no seat for me when I came for shofar....

why? doesn't it have your name on it?

like southernbubby said - you tell the person sitting in it that it belongs to you

↑ Mommy3.5

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 10:59 am

they have a seating chart, which everyone seems to ignore, and most of the women don't seem to buy seats. I am much younger than southern bubby, and would feel uncomfortable confronting women who are so much older then myself in that way.

lucky

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 11:02 am

The seats in my shul are $250 to rent for Yomim Noroim. I am really debating if it is fair to spend sooo much for it.

↑ chocolate moose ↓

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 11:25 am

no kidding, everyone !!!!!!!!!!

MommyLuv

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 12:04 pm

My shul assigns two seats per family as soon as they pay their membership dues. sounds fair to me:)

shalhevet

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 12:26 pm

We pay 150 shekels per person (we need for our 12, 10 and 8 yr old too) which is really a lot of money for someone on a kolel income in Israel.

But the money is used to pay for heating the shul all winter - people have to remember that someone has to pay for electricity and maintenance etc. I doubt if anywhere someone is taking money for their own personal use.

If you really can't afford, then maybe speak to someone. But if you can afford a new outfit for Yomtov or a new necklace or meat on the table, then maybe buying a seat should come first and maybe you shouldn't be begrudging your part in upkeeping the shul you want to daven in.

And I would certainly ask someone (nicely) to move if I came for shofar and found my seat occupied, no matter what their age. That's the reason I buy - I can't get there with little ones for the start of the davenning.

↑ southernbubby ↓

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 1:04 pm

Here is the Southernbubby way of keeping the seat that you pay for:
1)Get to shul on time or early.
2)Put your sweater or jacket on the back of the seat.
3)Put your name on your machzor with indelable ink and put it by your place.
4)Find out who is seated next to you and agree that you and she will save each others seats if someone tries to take them away.
Ask the seating committee if there will be unoccupied seats in the back for people who did not plan in advance. There will always be some elderly lady will wake up YomTov morning and ask her son to take her to shul. He will be angry if his mother is denied a seat. Our shul had to open up another room for the Russians who come only for yizkor so that they would have seats as well as not disrupt krias ha Torah which preceeds yizkor. The rabbi for the Russians tried to ask the ladies to temporarily give up their seats for yizkor but everyone ignored him. The proper thing to do was to prepare seats for them in advance, rather than to ask those who paid to give it up. Few people would have the incentive to pay if they will be seatless in the end anyway.

↑ chocolate moose ↓

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 1:24 pm

Oh, I know that buying a seat is a fundraiser. That the shul has to pay a chazan and rent tables and chairs. That's why I didn't say I need to come for free.

But paying $36 or 50 is a far cry from 75 or 100....specially when it's times 4!

shayna82

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 1:29 pm

yeah I agree, $100 for a seat to come to shul is nuts.

Ruchel ↓

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 3:39 pm

Lillyofthevalley wrote:

your lucky that its only $100 by us each year its $175 for each member of the family pretty expensive

Wow, and I thought my shul was expensive!!

ceo

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 3:46 pm

it's a lot of money, but let me tell you this- no shul is getting rich off of it, you know what I mean? the income a shul recieves isn't paying for the Rav to go on a vacation to Tahiti- it all goes to the shul: utilities, paying the staff (RAv, secretary, janitor), seforim, etc...

I have also never heard of a shul who turned away people who couldn't pay the cost of a ticket.

↑ Flowerchild

Sun, Aug 20 2006, 3:49 pm

lol mine does, if you cant pay you dont come in if its yom tov and you havent paid they have non jewish girls sit at the entrance and ask if you paid and then they look for your name on the list if its not they write you down and send you a bill later, otherwise they wont let you in

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