1. My son came home with an orange winter hat on his way home from gan, “to do hashavas aveida.” Do I need to start looking for its owner?
2. Family came to visit and gave us the headphones they took from their British Airways flight. We have no intention of using them. What do we do with them?
Thank you
Answer:
1. If the area is not Jewish, you don’t have to do hashavas aveida. If the area is Jewish, and there are distinguishing marks, you can put up a sign where your son picked up the hat, and suggest that the owner can collect the hat from you. To be honest, this is unlikely to help, but it might. If it doesn’t help, write down the value of the hat (not much, but more than a perutah) in your “hashavas aveida notebook,” together with the hat’s details, and do with it as you wish.
2. You can keep the headphones.
Best wishes.
For my own curiosity, why is it mutar for her to keep the headphones? Are you assuming that it is after yei’ush, and be’hetera baah leyadda?
There are two main reasons:
1. You wouldn’t be able to give them back even if you would try. British Airways won’t take them back.
2. The obligation does not apply for non-Jews.
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