Wealthy Satmar Chasidim spent a quarter of a million dollars for the Seder of the Satmar Rebbe R' Zalman Leib. The new Rebbe could not use his father's (the previous Rebbe's) things because of the dispute between him and his brother. Therefore his Chasidim bought all new stuff. Here is a partial list of what was bought:
Kos Shel Eliyahu - $80,000. The cup weighs 70kg (154 lb) and holds 26 liters (6.8 gallons). Below is a picture of the cup
Kiddush Cup - $30,000
A bed for leaning - $25,000, made out of gold, silver, and silk
Matzah Cover - $6000
Kapotah - a few thousand dollars, made from white silk and pure gold
All in all $250,000.
The headline, picture and all the amounts are from this past week's Mishpacha magazine.
5 comments:
if I remember correctly from the article, the guy who sponsired the cup is a "30 year old avreich". His kollel must pay well.
What incredibly shocking figures and saddening too. One advantage a closed community like KJ has is that it should be able to "tax" and budget. To spend this type of money ($6000 for a matzah cover(!) not to mention the others) is incredibly wasteful and it does not set an attitude of constraint.
Compare this to a recent wedding in Ger. I think it is incumbent on leaders to set the tone and exercise restraint. (http://orthonomics.blogspot.com/2007/03/gashmius- not-on-parade-leader-sets-tone.html).
For the record AKO's words above were taken from DovBear without attribution.
Sorry Dov Bear, I thought I had quoted you but didn't and my wife just caught it. My bad. All reading this comment, see Dov Bear's posting of April 17th on this topic.
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