Musar su Deuteronomio 22:1

Commandment 538 stipulates that found objects must be returned to the person who has lost same. The Torah (22,1) states: "You must make repeated efforts to restore them" (the lost animal or object).

Examples of people to whom G–d applied the מדת הדין, attribute of Justice, are found in Baba Metzia 83, when Rabbi bar Chana was made to pay full wages to labourers who had accidentally ruined the merchandise he had asked them to transport. Similarly we find in Baba Metzia 30, that Rabbi Yishmael son of Rabbi Yossi, who was old and did not legally have to demean himself personally, nevertheless paid out money so as not to take advantage of the הלכה of והתעלמת, in Deut. 22,1, according to which he would have been able to preserve his dignity.

We will explain part of the mystical dimension of the concept of reincarnation, in order to clarify the concepts זווג ראשון and זווג שני which are mentioned in Sotah 2a. Once we understand these concepts we will also understand the deeper meaning of the יבום and חליצה legislation. The Zohar, commenting on the reason why the corpse of a person hung after execution (21,23) [and the same applies to anyone who dies from natural causes Ed.] must be buried within less than 24 hours, writes as follows: Rabbi Yehudah derives from this law that if a body were allowed to remain unburied for a period of 24 hours this would cause a deterioration in the שאברי המרכבה. [I believe the term refers to man's distinction as compared to the animal to serve as the carrier of the entourage of the Divine Presence, שכינה. Ed.] Non-burial would reduce man to the level of the animals as per Psalms 49,13 that "man must not be allowed to remain unburied overnight, lest he be like an animal." All of this is connected to the fact that man was created in G–d's image and form. Were this deterioration to occur it would on occasion prevent G–d from assigning the soul of that body to transmigrate to another body He had singled out for it. The soul of the departed must appear before the Heavenly Tribunal before it can be transferred to another body. Until the body that this soul inhabited has come to burial, the soul does not appear before the Heavenly Tribunal. The Rekanati connects the subject of transmigration to the mystical dimension of man's creation and hence his burial. He writes that one must not imagine that G–d sets out to create a human being and has great plans for such a human being only in order to forsake it. The very reason that G–d ordered the prompt burial of a human being is so that He need not delay carrying out His decrees. Transmigration of the soul of the departed to another body is impossible as long as burial has not taken place. The matter is similar to a husband whose wife has died and who would not remarry until his first wife had been interred. The urgency of the burial is determined by the possibility that G–d has another body on hand waiting to receive the soul of the person recently departed. Rekanati finds support for his theory in the fact that immediately after the passage requiring the burial of the corpse of a legally executed sinner the Torah legislates the concern that must be shown for an animal that has lost its way home (22,1). The passage has an allegorical meaning above and beyond the immediate legislation. If G–d is concerned with restoring lost animals or objects to their owner, it follows that G–d is at least as concerned in providing an opportunity for even a sinner who had to be executed to "find" his way back and cleave to G–d and His commandments. This can be accomplished by גלגול נשמות. The aforementioned helps us to understand the expression נדחים, "outcast," which the Torah uses in our verse, in contradistinction to the end of the passage (verse 3) where the Torah simply refers to אבדה, "a lost object." Rekanati concludes by referring to his own comment in this vein on the סוד העבור on Ruth 4,7.