25. Machshavah

When one finds objects with identifiable characteristics (simanim), she is obligated to declare to the world that she has found the object. However, if the object found does not have any identifiable characteristics, one is permitted to keep the object.

Tosafot explain that since the object has no identifiable sign, we can assume that the owner of the object has given up on finding it. When an owner despairs of finding an object, the object becomes hefker, ownerless. Since the object now has no owner, the first person to find it becomes the owner. 

Rav Kook zt”l explains that the most wonderful thing about teshuva is that it fills the entire world with hope – hope for every individual and hope for the existence of the world as whole. Teshuva is really the opposite of despair. The whole idea of the Yomim Noraim is that it is always possible to do teshuva, to change, to return, to grow and to excel. Despair is the greatest danger; Giving up is simply not an option. For as Tosafot explain, when a person gives up and falls into despair, she abandons herself.

On Rosh Hashanah, we come before Hashem and say “Last year I asked for Your forgiveness, and also every year before that,  and this year too  I have a lot to fix. People who see me might think that I am lost, that I am unidentifiable; they think that there is no way for me to do teshuva. I too may think that about myself. But Hashem, look at what I brought tonight! I brought You an apple dipped in honey, a date and pomegranate, I brought simanim! I have an identity, Hashem – I have identification! And just like a lost object, if there is a siman, if there is identification, then there is no despair! I know that You will not give up on me Hashem, just as one does not give up on his lost object.” Hashavat aveidah, returning what is lost, is indeed the root of teshuva.

May we never fall into despair and always keep hoping to return to Hashem and to our truest selves.