{"id":42351,"date":"2018-10-18T16:31:48","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T13:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=42351"},"modified":"2022-05-16T16:34:01","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T13:34:01","slug":"lost-property-private-and-public-responsibilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/lost-property-private-and-public-responsibilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost Property: Private And Public Responsibilities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Exodus 23:4 treats a case of lost property: \u201cWhen you encounter your enemy\u2019s ox or ass wandering, you must take it back to him.\u201d Deuteronomy 22:1-3 expands this law, generalizing the ox to any property (including non-animals); casting the property-owner as \u201cyour fellow\u201d rather than specifically an enemy; and adding that if the owner lives far away or the finder doesn\u2019t know them, the finder must hold on to the property in their own home until the owner comes for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

What steps could an ancient Israelite take upon finding a missing object and failing to identify the owner? Although the Bible offers little more information, we can look at texts from neighboring societies and from post-biblical literature for ideas \u2013 without concluding that all that was true elsewhere, or at other times, was true in Israel and Judah per se.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ancient Babylonian Laws of Eshnunna (LE \u00a750) require governmental officials to bring lost property to the city of Eshnunna. If an official evades this responsibility and instead keeps the property for too long, he\u2019s charged with theft. The Hittite Laws (HL \u00a771) from ancient Hatti (present-day Turkey) require a finder of a lost animal to bring it to the king\u2019s gate or local elders. The finder may use the animal until the owner claims it, indicating that the purpose of bringing the animal to the authorities was to create an official record, not to deposit the property. (Like in Deuteronomy, the property could remain in the finder\u2019s home.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbinic literature also suggests the involvement of public institutions when property had been found. According to the rabbis, finders bore the responsibility of announcing what they had found, originally at the Temple during the Three Festivals, when Israelites would congregate in Jerusalem; in the synagogues and academies after the destruction of the Temple; and quietly among neighbors once it became dangerous to do otherwise (see tBM 2:17; mBM 2:6; bBM 28b). Officials at the institution (the Temple, synagogue, etc.) were not apparently involved, unlike in HL and LE, but the institution served as a setting for a public proclamation.<\/span> Some archaeologists believe that a stone podium found in Jerusalem was one such \u201cStone of Claims.\u201d<\/span><\/a> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Neither Exodus nor Deuteronomy alludes to the involvement of public institutions or officials, instead referring only to owner and finder. What happened in practice may forever remain lost.<\/span><\/p>\n

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