Mishpatim

כי יגנב איש שור או שה וטבחו או מכרו חמשה בקר ישלם תחת השור וארבע צאן תחת השה.

If a man will steal an ox , or a sheep or goat, and slaughter it or sell it, he shall pay five cattle in place of the ox, and four sheep in place of the sheep.


While the Torah tells us the fines one is obligated to pay for stealing, this posuk presents the unique case of stealing & then slaughtering or selling an ox or sheep. Where normally for all other types of robbery the robber has to pay double, here it depends if the animal you stole was an ox or a sheep. One has to pay five cattle in place of the ox whereas if one stole a sheep, he only has to pay four sheep in place of the sheep he stole.  

Rashi quotes the gemara which explains the reason for the difference. The Torah had pity on people’s dignity: an ox that walks on its own feet one has to pay five whereas a sheep for which the thief is humiliated by having to carry it on his shoulders,  he only pays four.

Rav Elyah Lopian is fascinated by this concept. He says: here's a person who broke into his friend's property, stole his sheep & then slaughtered it or sold it. At the time of his theft, he wants to run away as fast as possible not to get caught, throws the sheep over his shoulder & makes a quick getaway. Do you really think the thief was even cognizant of any embarrassment that people might be looking at him carrying the sheep? He just wanted to get away quickly, yet the Torah still feels for the honor of this thief. Even though for the sin itself, he will be punished as deserved, for his embarrassment his fine is reduced from five to four.    


There's a story told by Rav Sholom Schwadron that exemplifies this trait. He once went to a yeshiva where the Mashgiach had been away for a long time. The boys asked him to deliver a mussar sermon but he was torn. On the one hand, the boys were losing out spiritually by not listening to mussar. On the other hand, if he were to deliver the sermon, the boys would gain from him but the Mashgiach might feel bad that he wasn't able to inspire them himself. Therefore, he went & asked Rav Chatzkel Levenstein, who told him that we have a ruling that even if we would have an opportunity to build the Beis Hamikdash but there's a chance that you will hurt someone's feelings, then you don't build. So much does the Torah care about hurting someone's feelings.  


Continues Reb Elyah, we know that Hashem rewards five hundred times more then He punishes. How much more so is the reward of a respectable person who sees a sheep lost on the road. In order to return it to the owner, he would pick it up & put it on his shoulder. By so doing he gets a little embarrassed in front of the passersby, but how great must his reward be?


The question that arises, though, is the ruling by the Mitzva of returning a lost object. If the person who finds it is dignified & the object isn't something that's respectable for him to carry, he's doesn't have to go return it. How, then, can we infer that one should put the sheep on his shoulder to return it if he will be ridiculed for doing so?


Maybe Reb Elyah really meant a different kind of sheep. We know the Jewish people are referred to as the flock of Hashem. So what he meant was, that if we see one of the sheep, one of our people, who is lost, be it spiritually, financially, or emotionally, then even if one will be ridiculed or embarrassed for trying to help bring him/her back, imagine how great the reward will be for bringing the sheep back to its flock!