EXOD808 It is a mitzvah of the Torah, a biblical decree, to help unload an animal that has fallen under its burden; it is likewise a mitzvah to help someone load his animal when that has to be done.  (The respective sources are [this verse] and Deuteronomy 22:4; in M'chilta to Exodus ad loc. and T.B. Baba Metzi'a 31a the first is interpreted to mean unloading, and the second loading; and as Midrash Sifre, Deuteronomy §225 makes clear, both Biblical statements apply equally to friend and foe, although the first speaks of "your enemy" and the second of "your brother.") Now, the Talmud states: If a friend [needs help] to unload [his animal], and an enemy [needs help] to load [his], the mitzvah is [to work first] with the enemy, so as to subdue your natural inclinations (T.B. Baba Metzi'a 32b). If, however, both are equally friends or enemies, you should help first the one who must unload his animal, to ease its suffering (while this is not explicitly stated in the Talmud, it is apparent, and R. Isaac Alfasi (ad loc.) and Rambam so rule (Yad HaHazakah, hilchoth rotze-ah xiii 13). This in itself is revealing, but the matter goes deeper. Who is the "enemy" mentioned here? Not a personal foe, but an individual who deserves your hate because you have yourself seen him violate the Torah (T.B. Pesahim 113b). And, if your enmity is not really personal, and there is no animosity through direct bad relations, but you rather reject him for disobedience to the Torah, what need is there to "subdue natural inclinations"? You would probably bear him no more than an "official," token dislike to start with. In Tosafoth, the fine commentary on Talmud by French and German scholars of the 12-14th centuries, there is an answer worth pondering: When the enmity begins, it is an impersonal feeling, to conform with religious requirements. You are distant to your "enemy" only because he deserves it. But in human relations, there is a basic emotional reciprocity: "As in water face responds to face, so the heart of man to man" (Proverbs 27:19). To your "official" coldness he will respond with a very cordial dislike. This you will react, and before long the "little plant" will have blossomed out into a full, blazing animosity. Such a deep emotion requires help more urgently than an animal in pain. Learn to subdue it and control it (Tosafoth to Pesahim 113b, s.v. she-ra'ah). As R. Levitas exhorts us, be sh'fal ruah. Be humble and develop a calmness of spirit, an inner quietude, and you will not be ruled by pettiness, meanness and hatred. ... R. Levitas points to the key of calmness and self-control: for ruah means both wind and spirit. As a calm, gentle wind ensures tranquility in nature, so does a very humble spirit maintain serenity in human nature. And how do you learn to be humble?--By remembering that the end of man--including you and the target of your possible hatred and passionate outburst – is worms, when death lays all to rest.