One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הִלְכוֹת גְּזֵלָה וַאֲבֵדָה
Robbery and Lost Property · Chapters 13-15
Sefer Nezikin · Announcing the Find • Despair and Title • Dropped or Set Down
30
Days between
shakings of found wool
12
Months you feed
a working animal
50
Cubits: a chick's limit
from its dovecote
4×4
Cubits: the kav of
grain you may keep
Ch 13Announcing, Guarding, Waiting
- Announce the kind, never the mark. The finder calls out "whoever lost coins," or a garment, an animal, promissory notes, and withholds the marks, because the marks are the claimant's test. Announcements were once made on a large stone outside Jerusalem. (13:1-2)
- Deceivers must bring witnesses. Marks that are not distinctive are not enough, and once frauds multiplied the court ruled that a claimant must prove he is no deceiver. Measure, weight, number and the place of loss all count as marks simanim; where two claim identically, nobody takes it. (13:3-6)
- A paid watchman, not a closet. The finder is a shomer sachar, liable for loss and theft but not for accident, and the mitzvah is his wage. He must keep the object fit: shake wool every 30 days (not with a staff, not two people), use wood so it does not rot, copper for hot but never on the fire, silver only cold, and never touch gold, glass or linen until Elijah comes. (13:10-12)
- Living things get a clock. A cow or donkey is hired out and fed 12 months, pasturing calves 3 months, animals needing feed 30 days, costly young fowl 3 days, then sold before a court. Sale money may be used as a loan, so he is liable even for accident; found money he may not use at all. (13:15-18)
RememberTwo decrees for the benefit of society: the finder is reimbursed for feed without an oath, and never swears about the find at all, or he would walk past it.
Ch 14Ye'ush: When Despair Transfers Title
- Marks plus a seeker. The garment is the paradigm: it has marks and an owner presumed to want it back. Lose either half and it belongs to the finder, marks or not. A mark on the donkey's cushion counts; even the shearing of an ox's tail must be returned. (14:1)
- No mark means despair. One nail, one needle: the owner gives up the moment he knows. Anything lost in the sea, a river, or where most people are gentiles is despaired of from the moment it fell, with no need to hear the owner say so. (14:2-4)
- Despair he does not know about is no despair. A man who has not noticed the dropped dinar has not given up, even though he certainly will. Taking it then breaks one positive and two negative commandments, and handing it back later is a gift, not a return. Even "maybe it is in the cabinet" keeps the claim alive. (14:5-7)
- Coins carry no marks. Even "my name is written on it" fails, since a coin is presumed spent and dropped by the next man; a dinar sunk in dust is the finder's even if the owner is seen sifting. But a long familiar utensil must be announced, because a refined sage may recognize it without a mark. (14:9-13)
RememberA siman is not proof of ownership, it is a reason to keep hoping, and the owner's hope is what binds the finder.
Ch 15Placed or Fallen: Reading the Object
- Placed means hands off. Anything that looks set down hanachah may not be touched, mark or no mark, and doubt rules the same way. Take it anyway and you may not put it back where it was; if it has no mark, the finder acquires it. (15:1-2)
- Read the posture. A cow grazing by day is not lost; overturned gear, a cow in the vineyards, grazing at night, or three days of twilight grazing are. A cow facing the city is going home. A garment at a wall is placed; in a thoroughfare it is lost. A cow in a gentile's vineyard is taken only if he may kill it. (15:2-5)
- Standard means anonymous. Baker's loaves, raw wool, flax, purple stretches and small public sheaves carry no marks. A household's own bread, craftsman-dyed wool and sealed jugs do, except in the season when the stores are opened and every jug is sealed alike. (15:8-9)
- Deliberate oddities are marks. A shard in a fig cake, a coin in a loaf, meat cut abnormally, a bitten fish: announce them, since nobody does that by accident. A kav spread over four cubits by four may be kept; spread more thickly it may not be touched, and the Sages' unresolved cases are not taken, though a taker need not announce. (15:11-12)
RememberWind-blown dates are forgone to the finder, but never an orphan's, and never where the owner fenced the trees or spread nets.