Halachic Highlights

Question: May a homeowner keep a valuable object that he finds buried in his yard?

Short Answer: Unless the owner knows that the object was there from before he purchased the property, many Acharonim rule that he may not keep the object, as his property acquired the object before yiush and now the property owner must return it or hold onto the object until Eliyahu HaNavi comes.

Question: Is it permitted to simply return a lost object to a lost and found department in a store or must you try to track down the owner yourself?

Question: May an owner offer a reward to anyone who finds his lost object? May the finder keep the reward?

Short Answer: Yes, according to many contemporary poskim, a finder may accept a reward, but some add that it is preferable for the finder to donate the reward to tz’dakah.

Question: May a claimant reclaim his lost object from the finder based on simanim (identifying features) alone or are character witnesses also necessary?

Question: If a finder finds a lost object with an identifiable feature but then loses the item himself, must he pay the value of the lost object to the original owner?

Question: May a person ignore (and not pick up) a lost object that has no identifying features?

Short Answer: While Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt”l and others ruled that one may ignore such an object, Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l ruled that a finder must pick up the object and hold onto it until Eliyahu HaNavi comes and the true owner is established.