All it takes is a 100 Shekels and a Dream

Finally!

After years of not being able to play the "lotto" because the drawing was on shabbat, the entry form was based on games played on shabbat, or simply because it didn't have the right backing, the new "Goralot" chareidi lottery is taking off here in Israel.

Complete with the rabbinical backing of Rabbi Rafael Wint and Rabbi Yaakov Zonenfeld, the proceeds from this lottery go to "Tiferet Rechesim" fund, which provides aid for families in need and young charedi dropouts.

The grand prize winner will only receive 100 thousand shekels ($25,500); 10 runners-up will win 4,000 shekels ($1,020), 20 will win 200 shekels ($50), and 769 people will win back the price of the ticket, 100 shekels...meaning (according to Goralot) that 1 in every 10 tickets is a winner.

It's a far cry from a dollar to enter...its a 100 NIS investment per ticket (about 26 dollars)...though since some of the money goes to tzedaka, it justifies the high price.

The first lottery drawing is planned for Rosh Chodesh Adar (February 5th), and more drawings will take place each month with tickets costing 100 shekels (about $26). The staff of Goralot suggests that participants can buy tickets with their money set aside for charity (ma'aser). "This way, they can donate to charity as well as personally gain and keep donating from the same money they earn," explained Elisha Cohen, one of the project founders.

The haredi initiators of the project tell Ynet that the growing need for charity funds caused them to ponder how to support the public and funnel money into this organization, when there are so many others out there.

The project's founders are calling Goralot "the next big thing in the haredi community." To sell cards, ticket agents will operate in haredi population centers and, according to reports, have already sold more than 3,500 tickets. Next week, Goralot will begin advertising in haredi media and street billboards. YNET

Now...some people will have no answer whatsoever to the following old story...

It was flooding in Bnei Brak. As the flood waters were rising, a man was on the stoop of his house and another man in a row boat came by. The man in the row boat told the man on the stoop to get in and he'd save him. The man on the stoop said, no, he had faith in G-d and would wait for G-d to save him. The flood waters kept rising and the man had to go to the second floor of his house. A man in a motor boat came by and told the man in the house to get in because he had come to rescue him. The man in the house said no thank you. He had perfect faith in G-d and would wait for G-d to save him. The flood waters kept rising. Pretty soon they were up to the man's roof and he got out on the roof. A helicopter then came by, lowered a rope and the pilot shouted down in the man in the house to climb up the rope because the helicopter had come to rescue him. The man in the house wouldn't get in. He told the pilot that he had faith in G-d and would wait for G-d to rescue him. The flood waters kept rising and the man in the house drowned. When he got to heaven, he asked G-d where he went wrong. He told G-d that he had perfect faith in G-d, but G-d had let him drown.

"What more do you want from me?" asked G-d. "I sent you two boats and a helicopter."

You want extra money, you have to buy a ticket....(but that means only ONE ticket. It would be a shame for people to get addicted to this)

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael