Parashat Ki Teitzei

One morning, Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa and his wife decided to go for a walk. They opened the front door and found some chickens sitting on their front drive. They couldn’t see the owner, and so they decided to temporarily look after the chickens and their eggs. But the eggs and the chickens kept multiplying, until it became impossible to look after them all. The owner still hadn’t returned, and so, with a heavy heart, the Rabbi decided to sell the chickens and eggs and buy goats with the money. 

Years later, however, Rabbi Chanicha was leaving his house, when he overheard a man talking with a friend. He was explaining that this was the spot where he lost his chickens. Rabbi Chanina excitedly ran out. He asked the man to give an identifiable sign that the chickens were his and then gave him all of the goats that he had purchased with the money he made from selling the chickens and eggs.  

Rabbi Chanina and his wife take the concept of hashavat aveidah, returning a lost object, to the next level. They hold onto the lost chickens and never give up hope that the owner will be found. And I think there’s a powerful message in this Talmudic tale, as we enter the month of Elul. 

When a person is lost, distant, pushing us away, we have to keep hold of the relationship. They may be lashing out at us. They may have become a person we no longer recognise. But we can’t completely sever ties. We cling on while they are lost, no matter how long it takes for them to find themselves. We wait for them to give identifying signs, signs that they are returning to the person they used to be, and then we do everything in our power to help them return. Every Yom Kippur, we ask God to do this for us. Let’s start by doing it for others. 

Shabbat shalom!