Found On The Train,Rabbi Meir Orlian

Traveling the subway during rush hour is not exactly a pleasure trip. Huge crowds, people jostling in and out of closing doors, standing for an hour and bouncing around are part of the daily fare for millions of people. Mrs. Fine tried to make the best of it by observing the people around her, which she always found interesting. The varied assortment of people of different ages, gender, ethnic groups, and national origin was a daily lesson in the diversity of New York City life.

Today, however, her attention was drawn to a Jewish boy coming home from school with a schoolbag propped between his feet. He pulled out a book and struggled to write a few lines in a notebook with the other arm crooked around the pole, while the train jerked. "Must be doing homework," Mrs. Fine thought. Finally, with a stroke of luck, the boy got a seat, tucked his bag underneath, and focused earnestly on his work.

"Switch here for the 'D'," the conductor announced. The boy looked up, closed his notebook and headed for the door. The train was already pulling out of the station when Mrs. Fine noticed that his school bag was still under the seat. What could she do now? She made her way through the people, "Excuse me, Excuse me," and picked up the bag, hoping there would be something with a name and address in it.

Mrs. Fine opened the bag and found a laptop and another book with the name David Cohen written inside. She searched for a telephone number or address, but there was none. "Oh great," Mrs. Fine sighed, "there could be 100 David Cohens in New York."

Mrs. Fine was not sure what to do. She was hoping to be able to return the lost items, hashavat aveidah, but didn't see how to go about it. She didn't know the boy; she couldn't put up signs in all the stations. And to announce the school bag in her local neighborhood seemed pointless. She figured that the best thing to do, meanwhile, was to take the books home and decide later what action to take.

Later that evening Mrs. Fine told her husband what had happened that day, and asked what he suggested she do. Her husband was skeptical about returning the items: "How will you ever identify him? Anyway, if someone loses something on the train, he never expects to get it back; he assumes someone will take it or sell it. Perhaps we are allowed to keep it."

Mrs. Fine didn't feel comfortable with this, though. She was particularly concerned about the laptop. "Ask Rabbi Dayan," her husband suggested. "He'll tell you what you should do." She picked up the phone and called Rabbi Dayan.

"Hello, this is Mrs. Fine. On the train home today I found a school bag containing a laptop and a book with the name David Cohen. What should I do? Are we allowed to keep them?"

"In general," answered Rabbi Dayan, "when something is lost in a public place where the majority of passersby are not Jewish, we assume the owner gives up hope of getting it back. By the letter of the law, the finder is allowed to keep the item, even if it has identification (C.M. 259:3). Nonetheless, the Shulchan Aruch states that it is proper to return the item if the owner identifies it. Many authorities even require a person to act in this proper manner" (259:5 and Shach #3).

"There was no address or telephone number, though," said Mrs. Fine, "and the name is quite common."

"In that case, it would seem that you can keep the bag and its contents," said Rabbi Dayan. "It would be appropriate, though, to notify the nearby station master that you found a school bag with the name David Cohen on it, and leave your name and phone number, in case the boy will try to track it down."

"Would the same rules be true if there was a pair of Tefillin in the bag?" asked Mrs. Fine.

"Perhaps," answered Rabbi Dayan. "The Rema (259:3) writes that a person does not give up hope of reclaiming religious items, under the assumption that they will make their way to Jewish hands, and therefore the finder is obligated to return them. However, this may not apply to something lost on the subway nowadays, since it is likely that the average rider who finds Tefillin might simply discard them. In any case, it would be a good idea to post a notice in a Jewish newspaper or website."

"Thank you," said Mrs. Fine. "That gives me a great idea. Maybe some entrepreneuring person can create a hashavat aveidah website..."

Rabbi Meir Orlian is a halachawriter for Machon L'Choshen Mishpat. The Machon, which is headed by HaRav Chaim Kohn, is committed to providing awareness, education and services in all areas of monetary issues that arise in our daily lives. For more information visit www.machonmishpat.com.

Read Comments (4)

There's something terribly wrong here...
Date 02:10, 10-23, 09

Everyone knows that the MTA has a Lost and Found Department, and that is certainly where the boy and his family would go to see if the case was found. And if the finder doesn't know this, she'll be told about it when she calls her local police precinct or calls 311 in the city.

In light of this, I respectfully suggest that the writer reconsider everything that he wrote here.

Harold Cohen

Check the laptop
Date 05:10, 10-25, 09

Something similar happened to me outside the Old City in Jerusalem. I found a disk on key containing photos, and nothing more. After looking at some of the photos, I was able to find the owner's names. I looked up their phone number and found them. I suggest you turn on the laptop. If there's nothing obvious, someone who is computer savvy could probably help you view metadata or browser history (you could probably find his email without much effort).

to "something wrong"
Date 08:10, 10-26, 09

First I think this isn't a true story (note the names, especially Rabbi Dayan) but an example. Second, I'm not sure whether in reality the MTA lost and found is considered trustworthy with a laptop and in any case the mitzvah of hashavas aveidah would require one to pursue the search personally, not drop the item at an office and forget about it.

Hashavas Aveidah Website
Date 09:11, 11-7, 09

In modern times, its easier than ever to do hashavas aveidah, you just need a hashavas aveidah website. I didn't find one in a google search, so I figured I'll make a simple one. It's at metzios,worldtorah,com (just change the commas to dots).