Restoring The Lost

Parashat Ki Tetze contains a plethora of laws ranging from managing the spoils of war to sexual immorality to fulfilling vows and oaths. Our focus will be on the responsibility of guarding a lost object. At the beginning of chapter 22 we read:

You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother's, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it. (Deuteronomy 22:1–3)

At first this seems like a simple, straight-forward commandment of the Torah: If you find something that doesn’t belong to you, whether it is a living animal or an inanimate object, either find the owner and give it back or hold onto it until the owner comes looking for it. However, because this passage is brief without any details of how do deal with various possible scenarios, there are many implications, applications, and questions that are left unaddressed.

Signs And Wonders

In our day a large number of Yeshua’s followers find affinity with the charismatic movement, particularly among those in the Messianic movement. It seems the reasoning behind this attraction is that they are seeking to recapture the power demonstrated by Yeshua’s earliest followers. After all, Yeshua promised power to his disciples upon their receiving the Holy Spirit after his ascension. He told his disciples:

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you (Acts 1:8)

This power was evident in the lives of the Apostles. For instance, in Acts 3, Peter and John are on their way into the Temple complex when they encounter a lame beggar and heal him with the spoken word. In Acts 5, Peter is healing so many people that “they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them” (5:15). In Acts 28, Paul heals a man who is suffering from fever and dysentery (28:8). It seems that everywhere they turned the Apostles were performing signs and wonders. 

Many people read passages like these and it awakens a desire within the human psyche to experience this spiritual power. We desire to replicate what we have only read about in our Bibles. The modern charismatic movement is an outgrowth of this desire. It constantly tries to show authenticity through signs, wonders, and prophecies of future events. But there is a strong caution that should accompany this pursuit. This week’s Torah portion speaks to the inherent danger of following after miracles and prophetic voices. It begins by establishing the condition that should capture our attention:

If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass … (Deuteronomy 13:2–3[1–2])