השבת אבידה: Returning Lost Things | by Alana Schwartz | Aug, 2025

If you found $1,000 on the ground, what would you do?

This is a familiar scenario often posed to us. Some people would already be buying their new phone with it, while some people would take a quick glance around to see if anyone was coming down the street, looking around frantically for their lost cash. Well, if you didn’t know, Judaism has a take on finding lost things: it encourages you to return them to their owner.

There’s a mitzvah in the Torah about returning lost objects called “השבת אבידה” (hashavat aveida). Let’s break this down. A mitzvah is part commandment (thou shalt not kill) and part good vibes. For example, a mitzvah can be giving to charity (a must) or greeting everyone you meet with a smile (spreading the good vibes). The mitzvah of returning lost objects fits perfectly between the two. There are particular rules about how/when this act needs to be done. Does the lost object have particular markings? Does it have identifying features? Was it a lost $1 bill or was it an embroidered wallet with the person’s name and number clearly printed on it? But yes, if it meets all the criteria, you are encouraged to return it.

If the object, even if it were as tiny as a bead, had identifying features and looks like it is valuable (either monetary or sentimental) it is a mitzvah to try your best to return it to its owner. It could have no monetary value, like a broken keychain, but it’s still a mitzvah to return it if it was dear to the person who lost it. There are also exclusionary rules of when you don’t have to return something. If, for example, you find a $20 bill in the middle of a grassy field with no house in sight, you don’t have to return it. That $20 is yours. In this case, yes, finder’s keepers.

So anyway, keep that in mind while I tell this story.

So. It’s Wednesday in the middle of August in Israel. I work with teens at risk in the summer and it was MY TURN to open moadon (rec center) for the night. Usually I do this with a trained social worker and we have games and snacks and a safe space for the kids to hang out, but I’ve done this solo before. It was at a new location that I didn’t know so well, and it was deeper into Bet Shemesh than I was used to. But still, I was confident.

I get to the moadon (which, incidentally, is also the community’s bomb shelter) and it is flooded. This is after a two-hour commute by bus, by the way. So, I come back out and close the door and cancel the activity for the night (only 1 kid was supposed to come anyway) and I head back out after making a few calls to ensure the person in charge of the moadon is aware of the situation.

So, I go outside and wait for the bus back home. It’s 7:45. (Another two hours back). The 8:00 bus doesn’t come. It’s hot and sticky and humid and the next bus back to Jerusalem isn’t for another 30 minutes. But, I wait. My water bottle is empty and I’m in a residential neighborhood so there’s nowhere I can go to buy a new one. 8:30 passes and the bus doesn’t come, either. So, I ask a lady sitting next to me (also sweating and complaining) what the next bus is I can take and she gives me directions to a different bus line that is (hopefully) running. So, I get on an inner-city bus going that direction and as I almost sit down in a seat, I see someone’s lost bus pass. It’s tucked into this little envelope that looks like an ID holder, so I immediately open it to check who it belongs to.

Behind the bus pass was a scrap of paper which had not only the owner’s number, but his mother and father’s number as well. How could I pass up this mitzvah?

Now, the next bus back home I was trying to catch was leaving in 12 minutes. I call the number. A frantic man answers and immediately asks, “It’s my bus pass, right? Where is it?”

I tell him I’m on the bus and getting off at a certain stop. He says, “Thanks, I’ll head there right now.”

So, now I’m in a dilemma. I’m sure that wherever this man is, it will take him more than 12 minutes to get there. Should I try to pass this off on someone else? Remember, it’s 95 degrees out (at night) and insanely humid. I had no water and had come all the way to this city just to open a door and immediately leave. I was frustrated.

I texted my husband and told him the situation. He immediately said, “Don’t make yourself crazy over this. Just try to get back home.”

That made me make up my mind: I would get this bus pass to this person no matter what.

The guy was calling me again. I picked up and he said, “I live in the next neighborhood. I just got on the bus and I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

I waited. As I waited, I made a much neater scrap of paper to fit in the plastic sleeve he put his bus card in, and re-wrote his number and his parent’s numbers more clearly. I titled it “If found, please call…” in English and Hebrew on top. I figured if this guy had put his number on a scrap of paper next to his bus pass, he might loses it a lot.

The bus to Jerusalem came and went. But I wasn’t worried. I let it go without complaint. And a minute later, he gets off the next bus and takes his bus pass. Success!

And, even better, I am able to take the next bus to Jerusalem, 4 minutes later.

I believe we are in this world to help others. So many things had to happen for me to have found this guy’s bus pass. The particular day I was in this city. The moadon being flooded. The busses not running. The lady at the bus stop telling me where to go. The particular seat on the bus that I chose. This wasn’t a coincidence for me. This was a sign from above giving me an opportunity to do a mitzvah. And I’m glad I took it.