Being asked to ascend to the platform for the Torah reading is considered an honor, and it is customary among Sephardic Jews to auction off that honor for the benefit of the synagogue fund or charity. I had read of this practice but never witnessed it. Ashkenazic congregations would be unlikely to engage in a ritual auction, both because it offers for money what they believe should be bestowed as a sign of communal respect and because it is too potentially disorderly for their more decorous prayer services. Fascinated, I watch the gabbai turn from business-like functionary to jovial auctioneer. As the bidding begins, the crowd becomes more spirited.
Somebody throws out a first low bid.
Another man counterbids. Friends begin to egg them on. Men in neighboring seats thump him on the back or shake his hand approvingly. Then the gabbai starts up an impromptu snatch of some song in his honor that quickly grows robust and then dies out. This is repeated for each of the other two men who are called to the Torah, and then for the man who will lift the scroll aloft for all to see.