Engaging our children in the parsha

The following are some suggestions of ideas for conversations with our children by the Shabbos meals. The key here is to get the children involved through debate and stimulation.

Hashovas Aveido – returning a lost object

Imagine you are walking down the road and suddenly you spot a wad of notes of money on the floor. What would you naturally do? You would nervously glance around to make sure no one was watching and then surreptitiously bend down and quickly pick up the money. Then you would close your hand tightly over the money and casually put it into your pocket and with a quick pace start walking away. As you go along you nervously glance around you to make sure no one was watching. You think of the phrase – “finders are keepers”.

Why do you do this? What does the Torah have to say about this? The mere fact you would act like this shows that what you are doing is not honest as otherwise you have nothing to be scared of. You would bend down and pick it up not caring if anyone was watching. Here comes to play complicated halachos about the subject of Hashovas avoda that we find in Parshas Ki Seitsei. We are not going into the details of this halacho but just want to talk about different aspects of it.

To appreciate this mitzva and how sensitive the Torah is to people, picture you as the loser of that money. You have been working really hard the whole week on a job and then get paid cash. You have started dreaming about what you will spend the money on as you walk home. When you get home, you put your hand into your pocket and… no money is there! It must have fallen out! How sad you are. You hope and pray that some kind hearted person will find it and find out that you lost it.

The mitzva of returning the lost object is not only sensitive to the loser but also to the finder. Imagine a king is visiting a town and as he is going along he spots on the floor a cheap watch with a special design. Is he obligated to pick it up because of the mitzva of returning the lost object? Here again the Torah says that since the king would not even bend down to retrieve his own expensive objects therefore he does not need to bend down to pick up lost objects.

Jewish Workers

How would you expect to treat a worker that you are paying? Do you need to be nice to him? Do you need to provide him with any refreshments or snacks? How long do you have to pay him?

Let us look what the Torah says in how to treat a worker. What is interesting to note is the obligations of both parties – the owner and the worker. The worker has to be careful not to waste any time when working during his paid hours. This is seen in an extreme way in the Gemora Taanis 23b with Aba Chilkiya who when the Rabbis greeted him during his working hours he did not even reply or get distracted for those few seconds! Of course, this is a high level, but even on a lower level most of us who are workers should be very careful in how they spend their working time. This extends beyond the actual working hours. It is brought in halacho that teachers need to have an early night beforehand so that they will be fully awake during their working hours to give it their fullest! Another aspect of this is seen in that the Gemora Brochos 16a brings that workers would say a shortened version of bentching in order that they could get back to work quicker.

Now let us address the obligation of the owner. When it is working on the field at the end when the produce is ready to be harvested, the worker can eat from this produce when working. He cannot store it for later but can eat normal quantities. The owners have an obligation to pay the worker on the same day of when they complete their work when claimed by the worker. We see from Megillas Rus how Boaz treated his field workers…