Shabbat Parashat Ki Teitzei - 5781

Shabbat Parashat Ki Teitzei - 5781

Rabbi Hal Miller If your brother is not near you and you do not know him, then you shall bring it inside your house, and it shall remain with you until your brother's inquiring about it, then you shall return it to him. [Devarim 22:2] When one finds a lost animal, the Torah law is that we bring it into our house to care for it until we are able to return it to the proper owner. Why into the house? The obvious answer is that in those days, everyone had animals as they were an agrarian society. All the animals, cows, sheep, goats, donkeys, etc., were brought into the house each night for protection. These tended to be what we today would call little one-room cabins, but people and animals all slept under that one roof. Our verse commands that we take the same care of this lost animal as we do of our own. Those who nowadays denigrate the keeping of animals at all are missing out on a large number of mitzvot! Onkelos, followed by Ramban, says that this verse applies only when the owner lives at some distance away. One is not required to travel great lengths to return the animal, rather is required to provide care for it by bringing it in to the home. Ibn Ezra says that one may instead place it in the care of some trustworthy person if it is impractical to bring it into one's home. Ramban extends Onkelos. Not only does it apply to someone who is distant, but also when one does not know who the owner is. Ramban seems to say that this is an "or" situation, while Sifrei say "and", meaning both conditions apply. Sifrei also differs from Ibn Ezra, "into your house and not another". The next verse, [22:3] extends this mitzvah to all items, not just animals. But there are many questions. How much effort and resource must one put forth to maintain the animal/object? Is one obligated to give it to whomever makes a claim? How long does one keep it in this status? Bava Kama [118b] explains much of this. If the item earns its own keep, it should be maintained. This would include a sheep for shearing, or an ox for plowing, etc. Thus we see that it is permitted to use the object as one would normally use it if one owned it. But if it does not earn its keep, yet needs to be fed, one should sell it and set aside the value to be returned whenever the owner is located. The Gemora also says that one must be convinced that any claim is legitimate, so the real owner and the finder are protected against someone who is looking to take advantage of the situation. We see from elsewhere that an owner of a lost or stolen object will eventually despair of recovering it, at which time ownership passes to whoever comes up with it. In the case of a thief, there are still penalties to pay, but in the case of a finder, it just becomes his property. Exactly when this occurs varies based on many factors. Here, the finder is allowed to treat the found animal or object essentially as his own, preserving it until the owner shows up. The worst the finder is really out is storage space, which might be limited to a bag of money. In the mean time, if he can benefit from it while preserving it, he may. Bringing into the house means bringing it into his domain and treating it as well as if it were his own.