Festivals | Tishrei

Ethics in Everyday life

Return of Lost objects (by a respected, elderly person)

Situation

"Moshe, do you see what I see?"
"That's our Rabbi carrying an enormous bag of books! Wy is he doing that? Isn't it beneath his dignity?"
Slightly embarrassed, my friend and I approached the Rabbi and asked, "Rabbi, why are you carrying these books?"
"I found them on the side of the road, and I want to return them to the owner," answered the Rabbi. "Does the Rabbi need to be troubled with a task that is degrading to him?" we asked ourselves.

Is it that...

1. The Rabbi does not have to do this Mitzvah if it belittles him?
2. The Rabbi can do this Mitzvah as a deed beyond his obligation?
3. Both answers are correct?

Sources

Code of Jewish Law, Chapter 187 - Articles Lost and Found

• 1. If one sees an article that has been lost by a Jew, he must take care of it and restore it to its owner, as it is written (Deuteronomy 22:1):

  "Thou shalt surely bring them (the animals) back unto thy brother."

  The same applies to any property of our neighbor that is threatened, for it is all included in the precept of restoring a lost article to its owner.

• 2. Although legally, if one finds an article belonging to a Jew in a place where the majority of its inhabitants are non-Jews, he need not return it; even if the Jew has put a special mark of identification on it, one is not obligated in the Mitzvah since it is presumed that its owner, having lost it in such a place, has despaired of its recovery.

  It is good and right, nevertheless, to do more than the law requires and to restore it to its rightful owner, provided the latter can properly identify it. (...)

• 3. One is forbidden to touch an article if it is apparent--or even if it is merely suspected--that it has been left there temporarily. For example, if an article such as a garment or an axe has been left what appears to be temporarily by the side of a fence--even if it is unclear whether the owner has left it there temporarily or has simply lost it-- one is forbidden to touch it.
• 4. If an old and respected man finds a paltry article of such a nature that, even if it were his own he would not carry it home due to its being below his dignity, he is not obliged to pay any heed to it. He should, nonetheless, do more than the law requires, and concern himself with it, even though it is beneath his dignity.

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