The Weekly Daf #23 
Bava Metzia 23-29
Week of 6 - 12 Av 5754/14-20 July 1994
By Rabbi Mendel Weinbach, Dean, Ohr Somayach Institutions              
  
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This issue is dedicated in honor of the birth of 
Stuart & Danielle Seltzer's firstborn son
 
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We apologize for the delay in sending out this issue.  Unfortunately, there 
was a small electrical fire in the Yeshiva's PBX, which knocked out the 
phone system until now.

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Finders Keepers Losers Seekers

When a man loses one of his possessions and despairs of finding it, that 
object becomes the property of its finder.

But as long as he retains a reasonable hope of locating it, the object is 
still considered his property.

What happens then if he loses some money in sand dunes?

There is little likelihood of finding coins in such a quantity of sand.

But we see him bring a sifter and patiently sift the sand around the spot 
where he lost his coins.  Is this to be construed as an expression of his 
not losing hope of recovering the coins which are therefore still 
considered his property?

The Sage Rava ruled that the one who finds those lost coins in the sand 
dunes may keep them.

His reasoning:  The possibility of finding the lost coins even with a 
sifter is so remote that we assume with certainty that he has despaired of 
recovering them and they therefore belong to their finder.  His motivation 
for bringing the sifter is his calculation that just as he lost money in 
the sand dunes there is a good chance that other people also lost items of 
value, and perhaps he will make up his own loss by finding what others have 
lost.

Bava Metzia 26b
 
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Backup or Backfire?

In the beginning anyone who lost something would claim it from its finder 
by providing identifying characteristics of the object which only its owner 
could know.  When there was a proliferation of swindlers who were capable 
of providing such identification for the lost property of others it was 
legislated that anyone claiming a lost object would be required to bring 
character witnesses to attest to his honesty before we allowed him to 
provide the identifying marks.

Rabbi Papa once lost a donkey, and when he came to claim it in the court of 
the Sage Rabba bar Rav Huna he was told to first provide character 
witnesses.  When two such witnesses arrived, the Sage asked them whether 
they knew Rabbi Papa to be a swindler.  Assuming they were being asked to 
attest to Rabbi Papa being an honest man they replied "Yes."  Rabbi Papa, 
who had taken careful note of the question put to them, challenged their 
response with an outraged cry:  "Am I a swindler?"  The witnesses then 
explained their understanding of the question and their intention of 
attesting to his honesty.

This raised a problem as to whether this constituted a clarification of 
their testimony which is acceptable in court, or a retraction which is not 
acceptable.  Rabba bar Rav Huna ruled that this was an acceptable 
clarification, for no one would ever bring character witnesses to court to 
testify against him.

Bava Metzia 28b

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