I won something once, but then I decided that the whole concept of Chinese Auction is revolting. All it does is stoke our taavah for gashmius. Look at the brochures and booklets sent out – glossy advertisements of the “Imagine if you had….” variety. Giving to tzedakah is one thing, buying tickets to fulfill a materialistic fantasy is something else – it’s very similar to the secular advertising industry and feeds the same type of character problem. In fact, it’s a real indication of how assimilated we have gotten in an “under the radar” way.
Yes, of course, some of the prizes are always trips to EY. But what about most of the prizes in those fancy catalogues?