Lesson # 220 (Intro, part three) • Lost & Found

Two lessons ago there was set forth seven criteria regarding found objects. It was stated there that if all of the seven criteria are present, the finder must pick up the object so as to restore it to the owner. If any of these seven criteria are not present, the obligations under the Torah commandments to stop to pickup the object and to restore it to its owner are not applicable.
We shall now examine the last five of these criteria more fully. (The first two criteria were examined in the last lesson.)

(3) The place where the lost object Is found:
The next criterion that must be present for the finder to have the obligation to pick up and restore the object to its owner deals with the place where the object is found. The Torah text quoted two lessons ago refers to the lost object of one's brother, meaning a fellow Jew. If the object is found in a neighborhood where the majority of persons situated or passing through are Jews, then the laws of picking up and restoring found objects applies, assuming that all of the other criteria are present. This is true even if the majority of the inhabitants of the entire town are Gentiles. The law presumes that the owner assumes that a Jew will find the object and return it to him and thus the owner does not abandon hope of the object being returned to him.

Without the owner abandoning hope of the object being returned to him by the finder, the finder cannot acquire ownership of the object by picking it up.

(4) The object is a lost object:
Only an object that was lost (and meets the other criteria) must be picked up and restored to its owner. If it was not lost, for example, if it was or appears to have been deliberately placed by the owner where it is now located, the finder must not pick it up. If the object is not lost, but deliberately abandoned by its owner, the finder is not required to pick up the object.

(5) Value of the object:
The requirement to pick up the found object is present only if the object is worth at least a peruta (and the other criteria are also present). If it is worth less than a peruta, it need not be picked up. The object must be worth at least a peruta at two times: when it was lost and when it was found. If it was worth a peruta when lost, but worth less than a peruta when found, or worth a peruta when found and worth less than a peruta when lost, the obligation to pick up the object is not present. If it was worth a peruta when lost and also when found, the fact that it may have been worth less than a peruta in the interval between losing and finding does not affect the obligation of the finder to pick up the object. Similarly; if the object fell in value after it was found, this does not relieve the finder of the obligation to restore the object to the owner.

If an object belongs to more than one person, the share of each in the object must be at least worth a peruta to obligate the finder to pick up the lost object to restore to the owners.

(6) Consistent with the finder's dignity:
The lost object must be one that the finder would have bothered to stop and pick up if it was his own. If he would not have picked it up for himself if he dropped it, he need not stoop down to pick it up for others. (IYH This criterion will be discussed in a future lesson.)

(7) Must be a duty owed to the loser:
The object must belong to someone to whom the finder owes a duty to pick up his lost object. (IYH This criterion will be discussed in a future lesson.)

Examples of objects that must be restored:

The community standards as decided upon by Beth Din will determine under which category a found object should be classified. This may change from community to community and from generation to generation.

Objects that halacha has traditionally from Talmudic times described as having identifiable marks are: (The other criteria still have to be met, but usually if the object has an identifiable mark, the other criteria will be met.)

a. bread or cake baked by a householder; since every household baker bakes in a distinguishing manner, the bread is identifiable, as distinguished from bread or cake baked by professional bakers for sale in a bakery or supermarket where all the loaves of bread or cakes are standard.
b. dyed wool fleeces as delivered from a wool worker's shop; wool fleeces that come from the country before they have been worked on by a wool finisher may be kept by the finder.
c. jugs of wine or oil bearing the mark of the producer, prior to the opening of the market season; once the market season for these commodities has begun, the mark of the manufacturer is no longer relevant since it might have been purchased and lost by the buyer. By the same token, it would seem that the same holds true for most manufactured products that have not yet reached the market.
d. large sheaves; a cake of figs with a piece of pottery in it;. a loaf of bread with money in it; The uniqueness of the object is the identification mark, since a loaf of bread ordinarily does not have money in it. In these last two cases, it is assumed that the pottery or money was deliberately placed there; thus it hasan identification mark. It is unique to find a cake with a piece of pottery inside. This assumption holds true even if the possibility exists that the money or pottery accidentally fell into the object.
f. pieces of meat or fish cut in an unusual manner; The uniqueness of the object is the identification mark.
g. any object that has an unusual feature about it so that the owner can identify it.
h. heaps of produce; If there are several heaps, the number may be its identification, and if only one heap, its location may be its identification.
i. produce in a vessel.
j. needles or hooks or the like, found two or more at a time; The number is deemed an identification mark. If found one at time, they belong to the finder.
k. a heap of money; three coins piled up in a certain manner; or a specific number of coins;
l. money in a purse or a purse without money; however, if the money is scattered in front of the purse, the money belongs to the finder, unless it appear that both belong to the same owner.
m. a coin that has a unique marking such as a crack or split in the coin; this was stated when coins were the only type of money. Nowadays this can be used for coins or coin collectors.
n. bearer bonds or stocks that are identifiable only by a unique mark of the owner; such as a smudge on a certain letter of the bond.
o. money found in purchased produce;
p. an object without an identification mark found in a vessel that has an identification mark.
q. a mule without an identifying mark bearing a saddle that has an identifying mark. If the owner can identify the saddle he will also have the mule restored to him.
r. young birds with their wings tied together with an identifiable knot or in an identifiable place.
This concludes our introduction to the laws of lost and found property.
The subject matter of this lesson is more fully discussed in Volume VIII Chapter 259 of A Restatement of Rabbinic Civil Law by E. Quint. Copies of all volumes can be purchased via email: orders@gefenpublishing.com and via website: www.israelbooks.com and at local Judaica bookstores.
Questions to quint@inter.net.il

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