What would you do if you found a lost item that belonged to your enemy? We’re talking enemy, here, as in a “person you fight” and a “person you hate” (definitions from your kiddos!). According to the mitzvah (law) we read this week, you have to bring the lost item back to them. Woah. Hard!
Here’s a list of the amazing questions your kiddos asked about this text, “When you come across your enemy’s farm animal, you must take it back to them” (Exodus 23:4):
- What do they mean by farm animal?
- Why would you find a sheep or a cow just wandering around?
- What if it’s dead (do you still have to return it)?
- Where did you find the animal?
- Where do you give it back?
- How do you know whose animal it is?
- Why does it say your enemy and not your friend?
- How do you know you’re returning the animal to the right person (because they might lie and take something that isn’t theirs)?
And here are some of their amazing answers:
Why does the text say “enemy” instead of “friend”?
- Even if you don’t like someone it would be the nice thing to do to bring it back.
- It’s about will power. You could be thinking, “My enemy doesn’t deserve this. I could give it to my friend or keep it for myself,” which would be easier, but you should still give it back to your enemy.
- Also, if your enemy is really rich and you’re really poor, it would be even harder to give it back to them, but you still should.
- Even if you really hate someone, it’s their property, so you have to return it.
- Mitzvot seem to be about things that are hard for most people to do. Like sometimes it’s hard to be nice to your parents! So finding something that you have to return to your enemy is a harder thing to do than returning something to a friend.
- What if later your enemy finds out that you don’t give back their lost item? They might do something to you.
What would be tempting about finding a lost item that belonged to your enemy?
- I wouldn’t want to give it back to them.
- I wouldn’t want to see them ever again.
- I would just sell it for money.
- I would keep it, and hide it so no one would know.
- I would be really mad, but I would still give it back and get something else for myself.
- I would take it back to my house, lock up everything, and keep watch to make sure they don’t come for it.
- I would drop it from the top of the Sears Tower so it falls and gets destroyed.
What happens to the world if we, in anger, don’t return things to our enemies?
- Everybody would be taking things from each other all the time.
- It would be chaos!
- It would lead people to steal which would make people feel really insecure and unsafe, so they wouldn’t be able to live their lives (go to school, etc.).
- People stealing things would influence whatever kind people are left to make bad choices too, until eventually there wouldn’t be any kind people left.
What happens to the world if we always do our best to return lost items even to our enemies?
- The world would look like a diamond.
- It would look really clean.
- People would help find things, so everyone has more food and more things.
- If everybody returned lost stuff all the time, no matter how little it is, then it would just take up everybody’s time. Follow up question: how do you know whether something is important enough to return?
- If everyone returned their enemy’s stuff, no one would be mad at anyone. I would never have a bad day because of something I lost. But also, it wouldn’t be as happy or exciting whenever a lost item was found or returned because it would happen so much.
- It would make people start to be nicer to their enemies.