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Why don’t all the yeshivos’ and shuls’ form commitees to assign to all the students and members respectively to look for a name tag in or on the item when they clean out their respective coat rooms periodically instead of declaring the items Hefker?? Here we are teaching about the importance of the Torah in our lives(I.e. learning) but are we bringing it lmaaseh?! I personally have returned quite a number of items that would have otherwise gone into the garbage,
You’ve personally returned a number of items from where?
What does mais mitzvah, in the title, have to do with the OP?
Why do we need to form committees?
What’s next?
A committee in yshiva to make sure the bachurim put on Tefillin? Bentch after meals? Treat their friends respectfully?
It’s funny you brought this up today because I just got a call from a stranger trying to return an item a family member left behind in a place where he learns. And it’s not the first time such a thing happened.
Basing my conclusions purely on personal, anecdotal evidence and not a comprehensive double blind study (sorry), I say the likelihood of having a lost object returned if left in a shul, beis midrash or yeshiva is 90% higher than that of an item left in other public places such as an airport, train station, bank or department store.
(Please no anecdotally based studies to follow on the prevalence of forgetfulness in my family vs the general public.)
I doubt that the Mitzvah of Hashavas Aveida would mandate a person to check items on the “Hefker Table” for Simanim, laudable as the practice may be.
Certainly, everybody agrees that the best case scenario is to have the item returned to its erstwhile owner.
Practically speaking, however, Shuls and the like can not afford to hold on to all of the lost and forgotten items in their premises. This is the reason for the policy of declaring the items Hefker.
These are items which have been left by the owner for a sufficient amount of time that the Poskim have determined that the owner may be assumed to have been ?????. As such, the finder is technically permitted to keep the item, even if he knows who lost it (although in most cases he should return it, as is mentioned in Shulchan Aruch). I would think that the Inyan of Lifnim M’shuras Hadin doesn’t require me to search for a Siman on something which I have not yet picked up.
BMG semi-annually holds a sale of all the Seforim which have been left in their lost and found (I don’t know if they sell everything, or only those Seforim that have been there for at least a year or some other set time). Any Sefer found to have a name may be taken for free in order to be returned to its former owner.
My shul doesn’t need such a committee.if there is a name inside the (sefer, coat, hat) we contact the person; if not we put up a sign for 30 days. Then it is declared hefker.
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