No matter how careful or intelligent you are, odds are that some day you are going to lose something. It could be your phone, your laptop, your student ID, your water bottle, or your keys. Items inevitably fall out of our bags or pockets and are left behind. You might forget something at Goodrich or on the walk to class, in a bus or a friend’s car, or even in airports and study-abroad destinations.
Ideally, when we find something belonging to another person that seems to be lost, we return it to them. It’s pretty simple. So simple, in fact, that we’re all taught from a young age that if we find something that does not belong to us, we should return it. It’s something that I started teaching my older kid, Mia, when she was three years old. One of her favorite books at the time, Found, is about a bear who finds a lost stuffed bunny in the forest and then searches for its owner. In Jewish education, kids are taught about the mitzvah (commandment or practice) of “hasheivat aveidah” — literally, returning lost objects — from a young age.
Its inclusion in children’s lessons can give the impression that the practice of returning lost objects is so basic that it is not worth examining in depth. But the act of returning lost objects to their owners is a locus for affirming our bonds and commitments to each other. Here at the College — an intentionally diverse community where people hold diverse commitments, beliefs, and identities — the practice of returning lost objects is a powerful way to demonstrate our trust in each other and our capacity to live in community.
The Mishnah is a rabbinic compilation of laws dating to the early third century B.C.E., and the sub-section tractate Bava Metzia deals with the laws of property ownership among other topics. The second chapter of this section (particularly 2:6-7) enumerates a series of rules that govern what happens when a lost object is found, outlining when and how the finder has to make a public declaration about the object so that its owner can describe it and then claim it. The text cites two conflicting positions as to when and for how long the finder of an object must publicly declare that they have found it.
One position, attributed to a scholar named Rabbi Meir, holds that the finder of an object must make this declaration a single time — as soon as the finder’s neighbors learn about the object that has been discovered. This makes practical sense: Once your neighbors learn about the object you have found, you can no longer pretend that you possess something that does not belong to you. You must declare that you found it in order to give the original owner the opportunity to claim it.
But the text also offers a second, more radical position, which is attributed to Rabbi Yehuda. Instead of tying the obligation to declare that one has found lost property to one’s neighbors, Rabbi Yehuda demands that as soon as one has found a lost object one must continuously declare that one has found it regardless of whether neighbors have noticed. This act of declaring must last for the duration of the three pilgrimage festivals of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot, and then for seven days after their conclusion. This period extends from the spring through the fall and includes the time required for travel for the holidays.
In ancient Israel, Jews from across the land were obligated to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem for each of these holidays. On these sacred gatherings, when thousands and thousands of people would crowd into the city, it would be easy to lose something at an inn, on the street, or in the market. To ensure that lost property be returned to its rightful owner, Rabbi Yehuda’s position grants time for the owner of an object to return home, realize that they had lost an item, return to Jerusalem, and then learn who may have found their lost object. The requirement that the person who found the object continually announce it ensures that the owner is likely to get it back.
In his commentary on this passage, contemporary scholar Rabbi Dov Berkovits argues that the Mishnah is intentional about locating the discussion of returning lost property around the times of communal festivals. Pilgrimage festivals to Jerusalem allowed the Jewish people to be together for sacred occasions. One would be cheek to jowl with thousands of one’s people and have a deep sense of community with them.
Furthermore, these were occasions for religious celebration, in which the people could experience the divine in community. Returning lost objects thus becomes not merely a legal requirement but a manifestation of the bonds connecting members of a collective who have shared a sacred moment.
For the College community, too, returning lost objects can be not merely something we do for each other in order to be nice or helpful, but rather an affirmation of our mutual bonds. Our community can thus be evaluated by the extent to which we look after one another when we have lost an object. It does not matter if we disagree politically, spend our time pursuing different interests, or occupy different social circles: Community is built on a shared commitment of respect and mutuality that demands I return your object to you and you do the same for me.
As we head into the end of the academic year — and undoubtedly lose our ID cards, water bottles, or keys one more time before we head off campus — I bless us with the capacity to recognize that, when we make the effort to return a lost object to its owner, post about it on WSO, or turn it over to Campus Safety and Security, we recommit ourselves to the community of which we are all a part.
Rabbi Seth Wax is the College’s Jewish chaplain.
