También se incluyó una prenda en todo esto, [es decir, en (Deuteronomio 22: 3): "cada objeto perdido de su hermano"]. ¿Por qué se destacó para una mención especial? [(Ibid.): "Y así harás con su prenda"] Para servir como paradigma, a saber: al igual que una prenda se caracteriza por poseer simanim y reclamantes, todas las cosas que poseen simanim y reclamantes deben llamarse fuera. [Una prenda, en general, tiene un siman, y todas las prendas tienen dueños que las reclaman, ya que fueron hechas por hombres y no provienen de Hefker. ("entonces, todas las cosas que tienen reclamantes" :) para excluir algo desesperado. "Yeush" ("desesperación")— escuchar a uno decir: "¡Ay de mí por mi pérdida!"]
Bartenura on Mishnah Bava Metzia
In the general rule of all of these. In the general category of "All the lost items of your brother".
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bava Metzia
Introduction
Mishnah five is actually a midrash, an exegetical explanation, of Deuteronomy 22:3. The midrash tells us general rules with regards to which items must be returned to the one who lost them.
Mishnah six discusses how long a lost item must be proclaimed.
As we go through the second chapter of Bava Metzia you will notice that the subjects dealt with are in the order in which they occur when someone finds a lost object. First we learn which items must be proclaimed and which items belong to the finder. Then we learn the process of proclamation. Finally, we will learn what a person must do with the object if no one claims it.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bava Metzia
Why was it specified. "And thus shall you do to his garment".
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bava Metzia
A garment was also included amongst all these things (which one must proclaim, listed in Deut. 22:3). Why was it mentioned separately? To compare [other things] to it: to teach you just as a garment is distinct in that it has special marks and it has those who claim it, so too everything that has special marks and those who claim it must be proclaimed. Deuteronomy 22:1-2 begin with a general command to return lost items. The specific item mentioned is an ox or a sheep. Verse 3 continues (JPS translation): “You shall do the same with his ass; you shall do the same with his garment; and so too shall you do with anything that your fellow loses and you find; you must not remain indifferent.” If we read the verse carefully, we will notice that it is superfluous. First the Torah mentions a lost ass and garment and then everything else. The question which our mishnah asks is why should garment be mentioned separately. The answer is that a garment is paradigmatic for which types of items must be proclaimed. First of all a garment has distinctive marks on it by which its owner could identify it. This is still generally true today but would have been especially true in Mishnaic times when everything was sewn by hand. Second of all, a garment has people who would claim it. It is a valuable enough item that someone who lost it will almost always want it back. Any item which does not fit these two categories, distinctive and of a certain, minimal value, need not be returned.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bava Metzia
Just as a garment is special. An unspecified garment has a marker, and all garments have an owner that is claiming it, since it was made by someone and didn't come from nowhere.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bava Metzia
Questions for Further Thought: Mishnah five: According to the criteria listed in the mishnah what types of items in our society would need to be proclaimed and which would not?
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bava Metzia
So too anything that has claimants. This is to exclude something that was despaired upon. And despair is when you hear him say "Woe to my loss of purse".
