A Shabbos aufruf in 770 Eastern Parkway almost left a gabbai with compromised sight after a candy thrown at the choson hit him in an eye. As a result, the gabba’im of ‘770’ have implemented new takonos regarding the throwing of candy, the weekly Hebrew Mishpacha reports.
The aufruf took place two weeks ago, and candies were thrown from the women’s section at the choson, in keeping with standard practice. One of the hard candies appears to have been hurled at a respectable velocity, striking gabbai R’ Yosef Lash in an eye.
At present, his sight is compromised but there is optimism among doctors that his vision will improve with time, as he continues antibiotic treatment.
It has been decided that minyanim in the main shul must comply with the new bylaws dictating candies may be dropped and not thrown forcibly, which poses a danger. Failure to comply will result in the choson forfeiting a $100 mandatory deposit which must now be given before the Shabbos aufruf. In addition, a punishment that will result in violating the new regulation will be the cancelation of the mazel tov kiddush following musaf.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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12 Responses
I have been saying this for years. People who throw candys , ecspecially at high speeds have the potnetial of blinding people.
It’s about time the mother-in-laws stop making the aufruf bags!!! Let the chosson’s mother make them. She’ll @ least put in some soft nosh!!!
Good idea, with the deposit. Maybe people can go back to throwing harmless things like popcorn….
I was told that – these past few weeks – in 770 there are an average of 30 to 35 Aufrufs EVERY SINGLE SHABBOS Kah’! So (after so many chances) it was bound to happen!
this is sooooooo old! why wasn’t YWN on this story when it broke about a week or so ago & already appeared on other blogs?
I had the privelage to spend Shabbos at 770 2 weeks ago for a family simcha. There were ka’h 39 chassanim that week!
Yidden, this is a sign! We need the g’dolai ha’dor to come up with a takana to solve the Candy Crisis™!!!
I suggest the following:
– When used, candy bags must weigh less than 1 piece of potato kugel.
– Individual candy pieces may not have a hardness greater the cover of the Artscroll Shas
– The velocity at which candy is thrown must be less than or equal to the speed of a bochur running out for a smoke during haftora on yomtov.
I put my tallis over my head whenever there is an aufruf. Sometimes first my shtreimel and then my tallis over that. I really don’t like this weird practice also. It is indeed dangerous and limitations should indeed be imposed.
they should use soft candy and or pass the hard candy around the shul.It need not be thrown!
One injury (as bad as that is) out of how many aufrufs over how many years? We should look at the things we do that are truly dangerous: improperly placed candles, unsupervised children in a kitchen, etc. The group with the highest rate of severe burns in the city? Orthodox Jews.
We need to keep things in perspective.
Let us all pray that the Gabbia should have a refuah shelaimah.
He’s lucky he wasn’t knocked down & trampled to death in the rush by these hoards of sugar-deprived kids diving for the candies.
I don’t get this. What, there are shuls where people throw or drop candies on hatanim or something like that? When is this done, and for what purpose? Is this a minhag or something? Where is it mentioned? I am puzzled. I thought I was fairly familiar with the customs of the synagogue; never heard of this one.
Baruch Schwartz, Efrat