From Torah we learn: what you find, return!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketef_Hinnom_scrolls#/media/File:Birkat_kohanim_22.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketef_Hinnom_scrolls

===================================================

no, that's not Mar Hirsch.  

"I am doing a parenting session at a synagogue. In the midst of my talk a father stands up and says, “My eleven-year-old son has a busy week, he has school and sports, and music lessons;  he begs me to sleep in on Sunday, and I want to know why I should make him get up and go to Hebrew school.”

I have an epiphany, and I tell him:

1. "Because Hebrew school is the only place he is going to learn how to heal death.
2. Because Hebrew school is the only place he is going to find his part in the redemption of the world.
3. Because Hebrew school is the one place where he is going to gain tools to turn himself into the best person he can be. And
4. Because Hebrew school is the place he is going to find the connection between him, Israel, and the rest of the Jewish people.”

The father sits down and says, “Thank you.”

--- From that master teacher of all things Jewish,  Joel Lurie Grishaver. 

================================================

 

 

 

קַר 

חַם

 

 

גָּדוֹל

קָטָן

 

 

קָרוֹב

רָחוֹק

 

 

 

 

0	אֶפֶס
1	אַחַת
2	שְׁתַּיִם
3	שָׁלוֹשׁ
4	אַרְבַּע
5	חָמֵשׁ
6	שֵׁשׁ
7	שֶׁבַע
8	שְׁמוֹנֶה
9	תֵּשַׁע
10	עֶשֶׂר

 

11	אַחַת-עֶשְֹּרֵה
12	ֹשְתֵּים-עֶשְֹרֵה
13	ֹשְלֹש- עֶשְֹרֵה
14	אַרְבַּע- עֶשְֹּרֵה
15	חֲמֵֹש-עֶשְֹרֵה
16	ֹשֵֹּש-עֶשְֹרֵה
17	ֹשְבַע-עֶשְֹרֵה
18	ֹשְמוֹנֶה-עֶשְֹרֵה
19	תְֹּשַע-עֶשְֹרֵה
20	עֶשְׂרִים

 

Question:  

Are you under any obligation to return a lost object?

In other words, what are your ethical standards when it comes to keeping that which someone else lost? Does it matter what it is or where you find it?  Does it matter if it is expensive or cheap? 

Challenge:  Write down  two of your rules for dealing with lost stuff that you find.  Then write down the playground's law about finding lost stuff  (it's only four words and they rhyme). 

              Answers:

Playground:   Loosers Weepers Finders Keepers!

Torah: Hasheivat Aveidah Mitzvah De’oraitah  He!

 

Devarim (5th Book of the Torah),  Chapter 22

·       If you see your fellow Jew’s ox or sheep gone astray, do not ignore it; you must take it back to your fellow.

·       If your fellow Jew does not live near you or you do not know who [the owner] is, you shall bring it home and it shall remain with you until your fellow claims it; then you shall give it back.

·       You shall do the same with that person’s donkey; you shall do the same with that person’s garment; and so too shall you do with anything that your fellow Jew loses and you find. Lo Tuchal Lehit’aleym- you must not remain indifferent

Mishnah, Baba Kama 2:1, 2:2

Q: In a case where one discovers lost items, which found items belong to them, and for which items is one obligated to proclaim the  find so that the owner of the lost items can come and reclaim them?

1)     These found items belong to him: If one found scattered fruits or veggies, scattered coins, bundles of grain in a public area, round cakes of pressed figs, bakery loaves, strings of dried fish, cuts of meat, unprocessed lengths of wool… these belong to the finder, as they have no distinguishing marks that would enable their owners to claim them. This is the statement of Rabbi Meir….

 

2)    These are lost objects that a finder is obligated to publicize : fruit in a container, money in a wallet, an empty wallet, a collection of fruit, a collection of coins or bills,  homemade breads, jars of wine, jars of oil….

 

 

Rashi  (Commentator, France, 10^th century) Talmud Bavli, Bava Metzia, 21a

Scattered money can be kept by the finder. Why? Since the money does not have any siman/clearly identifying feature, they will mityaesh/despair  of ever regaining ownership , and the money becomes hefker/ownerless. This is the reason these objects may be kept

 

Talmud, Bavli (Babylonian),  Bava Metzia 26b

Taking a “lost” object you know belongs to someone is stealing! And Rava* said, “If you see a coin fall from another person who has not yet given up hope of ever finding it, and you take it with intention to keep it, you transgress all three laws: ‘Don’t steal’ (Vayikra 19:13); ‘Surely return it;’ and ‘Don’t be indifferent.’”

* Abba ben Joseph bar Ḥama, 280 – 352 CE, master teacher of two generations of rabbis at the great Rabbinical College in Mahoza, Iraq. 

 

Talmud,  Yerushalmi (Eretz Yisrael),  Bava Mezia 2:5, 5a

Before he became master of the Sanhedrin, that supreme court of the Jewish people in  Eretz Yisrael, Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach dealt in linen which he carried on his back. His students said to him: “Rebbi (Master!)  You can give up all this schlepping!   We will buy you a donkey to carry the load and you will not have to work so had.” They went and purchased a donkey from a pagan. The students subsequently found a large gemstone tangled in its hair. They went back to Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach and said to him: “From now on you need not work at all!” He asked: “How so?” The students responded: “We purchased a donkey for you from an idol-worshipper, and a precious stone was entangled in its hair.”

Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach asked: “Did the donkey’s seller know that the stone was there?” They answered: “No.” He then said to them: “Go return it!” The students argued with Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach: “Although theft from an idolater is prohibited, is not one permitted to keep an object that an idol-worshipper has lost?” He responded: “What do you think, that Shimon ben Shetach is a barbarian?[1] More than all the wealth of the world, Shimon ben Shetach desires to hear [the non-Jew say]: "Barich Eloho d'Yehudo'ei-- Blessed is the God of the Jews!”

 

---

[1] adjective.  bar·bar·i·an \bär-ˈber-ē-ən\     1:  of or relating to a land, culture, or people alien and usually believed to be inferior to another land, culture, or people.  2:  lacking refinement, learning, or artistic or literary culture. 3: a violent, destructive person

 

 1) This week, we read the Torah forbids members of the Jewish people to wear Shat’neyz. What kind of fabric is the forbidden Shat’neyz?

a.     Cotton and Polyester

b.     Linnen and Wool

c.     Silk that is not organic.

d.     Polyester that is not from cruelty-free farms.

e.     Wearing striped pants and plaid shirts- so ugly!

 

2)    Why does the Torah prohibit making a donkey and an ox plow a field while yoked or harnessed together?

a.     Because the donkey is not kosher.

b.     Because the ox and the donkey will fight.

c.     Because the ox is so much more powerful than the donkey.

d.     Because donkeys are allergic to Ox hairs.

e.     I’m not fooled by this trick question! Oxen and donkeys don’t live in the same parts of the world.

 

3)    What the heck is a Parapet?

a.     A kind of garment with four corners

b.     A kind of document used in a Jewish divorce ceremony

c.     A kind of belt used in Israel

d.     A kind of railing around a rooftop

e.     Two pets.  A pair of pets. Duh.

 

4)    If you are working to harvest food in a vineyard, field, or orchard belonging to a fellow Jew, what are you allowed to do?

a.     Eat none of the produce, take none home

b.     Eat none of the produce, take home what you can carry

c.     Eat all you want,  take none home

d.     Eat all you want, take home what you can carry

e.     Trick question! Jews don’t work in fields or orchards, dude. Name for me one living Jewish farmer you’ve met.

 

5)    Because we were strangers in their land, who does the Torah command us not to mistreat?

a.     Babylonians

b.     Egyptians

c.     Syrians

d.     Ethiopians

e.     Canadians

 

6)    What does the Torah say should be the punishment for kidnapping?

a.     Execution!

b.     Life in Prison!

c.     Huge fines and Prison time!

d.     Being whipped in public!

e.     Therapy and mindfulness exercises to help them see the errors of their ways, and then writing a letter of apology to their victims.

 

7)    Why does the Torah say you have to pay a day worker (someone hired for the day) before sunset?

a.     To be kind

b.     To be noble

c.     To be respected by them

d.     To be loved by them

e.     Because they need the money and depend on it, dude.  

 

8)    Which commandment is rewarded with dwelling in the land God gives you for long days?

a.     Making a sukkah

b.     Having honest weights and measures

c.     Blowing Shofar

d.     Eating Matzah

e.     Playing the game  “Last Jew Standing”

 

9)    The Torah commands us to “Remember what Adonai your God did to Miriam on the journey after you left Egypt.”  That’s when God gave Miriam a terrible skin disease known as tza’ra’at  for a whole week.  Why?

a.     Because she started saying Moses wasn’t fit to lead anymore and a woman should be in charge.

b.     Because she kept criticizing Aaron’s work as Kohen Gadol (high priest).

c.     Because she brought a weird offering to the Mishkan/portable Temple.

d.     Because she spread gossip about Moses-- and as a leader she should have known better.

e.     Because she refused to share the her copy of Final Fantasy XVI with her brothers.

 

10) Which is not a term used to describe what the Torah commands us to put on our four cornered garments?

a.     Fringes

b.     Tassels

c.     Tzitzit

d.     Gedilim

e.     Jew Strings

 

https://www.jakobsbrosfarms.com/about