Imagine, just imagine, that Egged busses decide to charge an extra few shekels to go to the kosel on chol hamoed. They have extra load, need to hire more people, more expenses. So is it legitimate to charge?? Of course not!
Why is a Mikvah different? For your information, the Mikvahs in Israel do NOT charge more on Erev Yom Kippur than a regular Erev Shabbos. For that matter, they don’t charge more any Erev Yom Tov. Why is that? Because they only have one day Yom Tov! However, in Chutz L’aretz, they charge extra for 2 days of Yom Tov as it gives you a right to use the Mikvah each day. THIS is legitimate! Now, when it comes to Erev Yom Kippur they feel they can charge like Erev Yom Tov because people are just “used to” giving $5 on Erev Yom Tov. But in truth, the reasons don’t apply here because it’s only one day and plus we don’t use the Mikvah on Yom Kippur itself. So it should really be maybe LESS than Shabbos! If it’s not price gouging, it certainly is taking advantage of the customers!
If the Mikvah is not covering its costs then taking extra Erev Yom Kippur is a shaylas chacham. I personally feel it’s taking advantage of people and the better way is to charge more on a regular basis to fill in the gap. As I mentioned, in Israel where the Erev Yom Tov phenomenon doesn’t exist, nobody would think of charging extra on Erev YK. So my analysis seems correct.
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