DEUT1117 We must help someone with a heavy load. 1) If you see someone who needs help in loading or unloading an animal, you are obligated to help him. Failure to do so is a violation of a Torah prohibition. (Choshen Mishpot 272:1). 2) The Chinuch (540-1) adds that the same applies when we see a person carrying a load that he is unable to handle himself. Therefore, if you see someone carrying a heavy package or suitcase, you should give him a helping hand. 3) If someone needs help loading an animal, and another person needs assistance in unloading an animal, you are obligated to help unload first. The reason for this is that when it is necessary to unload, the animal also suffers. The Talmud (Bava Metzia 32b) states that even so, if your friend needs aid in unloading and someone you dislike needs aid in loading, you must help your enemy first in order to overcome your evil inclination (Choshen Mishpot 272:10). When you aid someone you dislike, your actions will have an effect on your feelings and you will begin to feel love toward that person. (Michtav MaiEliyahu, vol. 1, p. 37). The Minchas Chinuch (80) explains that although this will lengthen the period of suffering of the animal, it is nevertheless permissible. We are permitted to utilize an animal for our physical needs even if the animal might suffer, although we are forbidden to needlessly cause an animal to suffer. All the more so, we are permitted to passively let an animal suffer for a spiritual need, such as overcoming hatred toward a fellow man. 4) If an elderly person or a scholar who would not load or unload an animal for himself sees someone who needs help, he is not obligated to do for someone else what he would not do for himself. If a Torah scholar wants to go beyond the letter of the law and help, there is a difference of opinion as to whether he is permitted to do so. (Choshen Mishpot 272:3). 5) You are obligated to help the same person as many times as needed. (ibid. 272:4). 6) The Aruch Haschulchan (Chosen Mishpot 272) writes that because of this commandment we are obligated to help someone if a wheel of his wagon breaks and he needs assistance in fixing it. This has a very practical application today. Many people are unable to fix flat tires on cars by themselves. It is a very great service to help someone who is stranded on the road with a flat tire. 7) If several people are traveling together on donkeys and the foot of one donkey is injured and therefore it goes much slower than the rest, the travelers are not permitted to go ahead of the rider of the injured donkey. If, however, the injured donkey is completely unable to travel, the others are permitted to continue. (Choshen Mishpot 272:12). The same would apply if several people are traveling together in wagons when there are a number of wagons, each holding a few people. If one wagon is delayed because something needs to be repaired, the other wagons must wait for that wagon. (SMA, Choshen Mishpot 272:20)