https://pixabay.com/photos/dresses-apparel-clothing-clothes-53319/
כִּי תִפְגַּע שׁוֹר אֹיִבְךָ אוֹ חֲמֹרוֹ תֹּעֶה הָשֵׁב תְּשִׁיבֶנּוּ לוֹ
“If you find your enemy’s ox or donkey lost, you shall surely return it to him.” (Shemot 23:4)
Translated by Balbino Cotarelo Núñez
To read this post in English, click here
QUESTION— Cleveland, Ohio
A man wrote to me after cleaning out his eldest daughter’s room and finding a sweater that was most likely lent to her many years ago by a close friend. The daughter and the owner of the sweater had a falling out 15 years ago and have not communicated since. Is there any obligation to contact the owner? Under what circumstances can the sweater be donated or given away?
ANSWER
The daughter (or father) is obliged to return the jersey even though they are angry. It still belongs to its rightful owner.
Even if there is a presumption of yeush , meaning that the original owner has given up all hope of ever recovering the sweater, he would not be able to allow the daughter to keep the sweater (or to give it to someone else). The principle that a person may keep a lost item, once the original owner has had yeush , only applies if there was yesuh before it came into the hands of the finder. In this case, it had already been in the daughter’s hands for a good while before the original owner realized that it was lost and gave up hope of ever recovering it. The daughter’s original obligation to return the sweater does not disappear when the owner later makes yeush .
In a way, the obligation in a case like this, with an angry outburst, both parties are clearly represented in the verse: כִּי תִפְגַּע שׁוֹר אֹיִבְךָ when you find your enemy’s ox, you shall return it ( Shemot 23:4). The key to this verse is clear: despite the hatred that exists between the two of you, you are not exempt from ethical obligations toward the person or even toward his property. The object must be returned to its owner.
The Talmud in Baba Metzia (32b) goes even further. Commenting on the next verse, concerning a donkey that is about to collapse from its overload—“if you see your enemy’s donkey collapsing under its overload and you think of ignoring it, you should help it with that.” ( Shemot 23:5)—the Talmud says that “if you have to decide between unloading the donkey of someone you love (which would alleviate the animal’s suffering) and helping to load the donkey of someone you hate, your obligation begins with helping the person you hate, so that you will learn to master your evil inclination (i.e., your feelings of hatred toward that person).”
So not only does the obligation still stand, but it presents an important, however difficult, opportunity to overcome oneself and put negative feelings on hold and still do the right thing. If it is too difficult to address the friend directly, then one can simply mail the jersey with a note saying, “I found this while cleaning. Have a good one. etc.”
Daf of the Day
