BAIS HAVAAD PARSHA PERSPECTIVES Parshas Tazria-Metzora:Searching Ancient Walls, Solving Today’s Questions By: Rabbi Tzvi Price

Someone recently asked the Bais HaVaad the following question. The person had gone to a thrift shop that sold used clothing and had succeeded in finding a nice suit. While wearing the suit for the first time he reached into one of the pockets and found a hundred dollar bill that must have been left in the suit by the original owner. He wanted to know if he was allowed to keep the money or was he required to return it to the thrift shop. This kind of question can arise at estate auctions, antique stores, used book stores, etc…. Basically, anywhere that used items are being bought and sold there is a possibility of finding something of value that had been placed in the merchandise by the original owner and forgotten there. Where does the discussion regarding these common scenarios start? A good place to begin would be from a pasuk in this week’s Parshah.