(JNS)
Those who want to put their big rabbi pants on are sure to be disappointed.
A March 1 auction was slated to offer a pair of pants worn by Chaim Kanievsky—the renowned Orthodox rabbi whose funeral in March 2022 drew hundreds of thousands—with a $3,200 opening bid.
Artistic portrait of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, August 2022. Photo courtesy of Jgavant via Wikimedia Commons.
But following questions from the New York Post, the pants have been pulled from the auction.
Abe Kugielsky, director of the auction house J. Greenstein & Company, told the Post that auctioning a famous rabbi’s hat, tzitzit, tallit or tefillin would be kosher, but not his pants. “Imagine if they auctioned off the pope’s sock,” he told the paper.
The auction listing did not appear to say whether the pants had been laundered since the rabbi wore them.
Kanievsky died on March 18, 2022 at the age of 94.
