Everybody’s heard of the institution called a Lost and Found. Wherever you might be, there is usually a
designated place where you should go if you find some item that someone has
lost. Perhaps carelessly dropped in a
public place. A shopping mall, an
airport, a workplace, whatever. If it’s
an item of particular value, the loss of which could especially harm the loser,
one sometimes turns it in to the police.
For example, someone’s wallet, with important identification and credit
cards, that sort of thing. The important
principle is that you want to turn it over to a place where the one who lost it
will most likely be reunited with it.
Likewise, if you
suddenly notice something missing from your person, you first retrace your most
recent steps. And then, you find the
local Lost and Found. And failing that,
you check with the police. Because,
whilst there obviously are malefactors among us, people who would steal
outright or simply not turn in something of value that they found, that does
not describe most people. Most folks are
reasonably good people. If they found
someone’s wallet on the floor of, say, a shopping mall, they would take
reasonable steps to make it possible for the wallet’s owner to reclaim it.
Almost everybody has
had such an experience. Either of losing
an item and being re-united with it thanks to someone’s kindness. Or of finding an item and going out of their
way to find its owner. Many of us have
been on both sides of such transactions.
When we are on the
giving or receiving end of such actions, we tend to think of it as an act of
kindness. If we have been re-united with
our lost possession, we want to shower the finder with expressions of
gratitude. If we’re on the other side of
the transaction, we see the other’s expression of gratitude as sufficient
payment for our act. But underlying the
entire business is the sense that goodness requires a person finding an
object to take reasonable steps to find its owner. And we find that principle reflected in this
week’s Torah reading, Ki Tetzei. And
the Divine sense of Lost and Found goes far beyond what most of us would consider
to be reasonable measures to restore our neighbour’s goods to him.
As the 22nd
chapter of Deuteronomy opens, we find the dictum that we will restore our neighbour’s
goods to him. But if he is away or can’t
be found, we are to take his item into our own home and hold it until her
returns or can be found. So far, so
good. But that extends to the case where
he has lost his livestock or one of his working animals. So you see your neighbour’s bovine, or sheep,
or goat, or donkey out wandering around freely, and you know he is away. If so, you are obliged to take it in, with
your own livestock and care for it until your neighbor returns. Implied is that you must feed and groom it,
assist with the birth of its young and call a veterinarian in if needed. That’s why the Torah specifically tells us
that, in such a circumstance, it is forbidden to ‘hide yourself from them.’ It would be all-too-human to pretend that one
didn’t see the wandering animal. Let
someone else take it in! But we’re
forbidden to do that.
Just as an aside, do
you think that requires that we take in one’s lost dog or other pet? No, I don’t think so. It would definitely be a Good Deed to do so, and
our neighbour is likely to shower us with gratitude in such a case. But I wouldn’t include a household pet in this
case. It isn’t the same as an
income-producing animal. And please don’t
accuse me of not being an animal lover! I
love animals as much as the next person…in the next person’s house!
But the law goes
even farther. If one see’s one’s
neighbour’s donkey or ox falling on the road, one is required to take positive
steps to save the animal and restore it to one’s neighbour. So even to the point of taking what we might
consider extraordinary steps to restore one’s neighbour’s property…it is an
obligation. Surely these laws assumed
that there was no such thing as insurance that could be purchased to cover one’s
animals. Or a Centrelink office (social
welfare agency for those not in Australia) to turn to if you lost your means of
economic survival. The Torah’s remedy
for such social ills is not the creation of an agency to anonymously hand out
public monies. Rather, it is the concept
that I AM my Brother’s Keeper.
My point is not to
cast aspersions on the safety net provided by the Welfare State, and suggest
that we go back to the organisation of society prescribed in the Torah. But sometimes the existence of the Welfare
State clouds the reality of our personal responsibility to act positively to
help our neighbour. And perhaps an
additional criticism of the Welfare State – its programmes often seem structured
to enable people to develop dependence and feed it. Not to get people on their feet and help them
return to productivity.
That – to assist our
neighbour to return to productivity – is the point of these, the Torah’s laws
of Lost and Found. Even if it was our
neighbour’s carelessness that resulted in him losing a valued object. Or which resulted in his livestock wandering
loose around town. It is still our
obligation to help him. The principle
being, a person’s livelihood is their dignity…and their survival. When we keep that in mind, then it becomes
more than just an act of kindness to restore our neighbour to his possessions. We can begin to understand Hashem’s
prescription that we go even beyond what the most generous might be willing to
go. Shabbat shalom.
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