Today is my grandfather's yahrtzeit, Mr. Sam Ehrman, Alav Hashalom:
Let us learn a mishna לעלוי נשמת ר' שמואל פנחס בן ר' יעקב צבי with Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz. In the zchus of the לימוד המשנה may his נשמה [same letters as משנה] have an Aliyah! I didn't know him but I know אבי מורי שליט"א and ALL I HAVE in gashmiyus and ruchniyus is thanks to him and my mother.
The mishna in Machshirin 2/8 says:
מצא בה מציאה--אם רוב גויים, אינו צריך להכריז; ואם רוב ישראל, צריך להכריז; מחצה למחצה, צריך להכריז.
If someone finds an אבידה - if the town is mostly goyim - he need not announce it. If the majority is Jewish - he must announce. 50-50 - he must announce.
The Gemara [Bava Metzia 24a] suggests that according to the Rabanan, one must announce the אבידה even if it a place of mostly Gentiles because maybe a Jew lost it.
Tosfos asks - Since there is no מוחזק let us assume that it was lost by a goy and let him keep it?? Tosfos answers that if we can fix the situation without having to revert to the rule of letting someone keep an object whose owner is not known, then we do. Here, let him announce it and hopefully the owner with show up. Tosfos in Bava Basra adds that the Chachomim obligated him to announce the אבידה in order to fulfill the mitzvah of השבת אבידה.
Our mishna says that if the town is 50-50 then we must announce it. It must be because we are מחמיר that he fulfill the mitzvah of השבת אבידה.
But wait a moment!! The mitzvah STARTS with a ממונות question - To whom does this object belong? From there stems the mitzva. Since from a ממונות aspect the finder may keep it because המוציא מחבירו עליו הראיה - there should be no mitzvah either!! The mitzvah never starts!:-)
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
Zugt Rav Chaim [he was a MASTER at establishing rules as to when various laws apply or don't apply - the following rule is from מהרי"ט אלגאזי]: We only say the rule that המוציא מחברו עליו הראיה trumps a mitzvah when through giving money one can be absolved from keeping the mitzvah. For example ספק פדיון פטר חמור - If one gives money [i.e. a שה] to the Kohen, he need not decapitate the donkey. In such an instance, when there is a ספק we say המוציא מחברו עליו הראיה. [Ostensibly, the fact that he can absolve himself from the mitzvah with ממון make the ממונות primary and thus המוציא מחברו עליו הראיה absolves him from the mitzvah]. But if he cannot pay money in order to absolve him from the mitzvah [such as ספק עגלה ערופה] - we don't say המוציא מחברו עליו הראיה. A finder may not pay the loser of an object in order to get out of his obligation to return the object and thus we don't say המוציא מחברו עליו הראיה and he must announce the object מספק.
Geshmak!
Lameer kik'n arein inoveinig!
