It’s about two weeks before Pesach and Rabbis across the country are emailing their shul members with the chometz sales forms. I’m not going to poke fun at the whole business of “selling” chometz, since we’ve pretty much accepted this legal loophole as fact and are better off for it. But I am going to poke fun at the Great Minyan Day that results from the whole business of these sales forms.
The Great Minyan Day is the day when all the men in the community show up for weekday minyan. You know the guys who only show up on shabbos, never during the week. On one day in late March, they sheepishly show up on a weekday, the Great Minyan Day. The ruv only processes the chometz sales if you show up to minyan. He doesn’t say so explicitly, but it’s implied by the fact that his office hours now coincide with minyan. You aren’t going to show up and not daven, so he’s got you roped in. I think the handkerchief kinyan gimmick is just a ploy to force you to show up to his office in person. This way you have an interaction with him at least once a year.
The Great Minyan Day takes place sometime in the next two weeks — it depends on which day of the week Pesach falls out and which day your ruv has the very limited hours for the sale. Our shul throws a big party on the Great Minyan Day. We have some kuchel and shnapps for the “visiting members” — sponsored by the poor sap who is always calling everyone with the guilt-laden request to help make the daily minyan during the year. If it was up to him, we’d have a chometz sale every day.
Does your community have a Great Minyan Day celebration? If so do they commemorate it in any special way? Will you start a Great Minyan Day in your community? Let me know in the comments below.
Find out more about the Great Minyan Day at 4Torah.com