A precious Jew who is responsible for the aliyos in my shul related the following:
Last Shabbos was my mother’s yahrtzeit, and I very much wanted to get maftir, as is the custom, l’ilui nishmasah. That Shabbos another Yid came to the shul, and he had yahrtzeit for his father. He came over and told me about it, so that I would give him maftir.
I told myself that two people could not grab hold of one maftir. I would give in, and my giving in would be l’ilui nishmas my mother a”h. It’s worth pointing out that the other person was younger than me, and I, who was giving in, was the man in charge of aliyos and had been devotedly serving the shul for decades.
After davening, I went to a certain shul in Ramat Gan, where I have been giving a shiur for close to forty years. In this shul davening starts later, and now – listen to this: Every Shabbos, as far as I can remember, the rav of this shul takes maftir. And now, specifically on this Shabbos, the rav decided that he wanted shelishi, and he asked to give me the maftir! That’s right – on that very Shabbos, when it was so important to me to get maftir l’ilui nishmas my mother, when I had given in to another person.
I gave in, but in Shamayim they hadn’t given in on my maftir. I was zocheh to carry out this important minhag and to give my mother in Shamayim double the nachas.
This is not a one-time story. One year on Rosh Hashanah, after I’d already arranged with the gaba’im which aliyah I was to receive, it turned out that another person was sure he was supposed to receive that aliyah. I gave in, and when I got to the shul in Ramat Gan, they gave me exactly the aliyah I had given up.
One never loses out from giving in!
