Lesson # 232 • Kindness to Work Animals
We continue the topic of kindness to work animals.

The animal owner's presence
In last week’s lesson it said that it is written that the Torah “If you see the donkey of someone you hate crouching under its burden, would you refrain from helping him? You shall help him repeatedly." The Torah also states, "You shall not see the donkey of your brother or his ox falling and hide yourself from them; you shall surely stand them up with him.'

These two verses seem to imply that the obligation for Reuven to load, unload, and reload Shimon's animal is binding only when the owner Shimon is also present. This is true only if Shimon is present and does not participate in loading, unloading, and reloading the animal. However, if Shimon is not present, Reuven must perform the commandments of unloading and reloading. There are times when even if the owner is present and does not participate in the loading, unloading, and reloading Reuven must load, unload and reload. For example, if Shimon is too old or too weak to participate, the original loading having been done for him by someone else.

Exemptions from the commandments
There are times when Reuven is exempt from the obligation to perform the commandments of loading, unloading, and/or reloading. Some examples are:

If Reuven is a kohen and the animal is in a cemetery, the kohen must not go to the cemetery to help unload or load the animal. The reason is that a kohen is not permitted to go into a cemetery. There are authorities that the laws prohibiting a kohen apply only if the cemetery is a Jewish cemetery.
If Reuven is a scholar, or an old sage, or wealthy or highly respected, and does not ordinarily perform such tasks as loading or unloading animals, he need not help to load, unload, and reload the animal. Regarding the persons listed in this paragraph, the test is would such a person load, unload, and reload his own animal? If he would not do it for himself, he is not obligated to do it for Shimon. However, if Reuven is truly pious, he will help to load, unload, and reload even if he would not have done so for himself. In halachah this is known as acting lifnim mishurath hadin.

In case of suffering of the animal, all persons should help if they are physically able to do so.

If the animal belongs to Shimon and is being driven by a heathen, Reuven need not assist in unloading and reloading, or loading the animal, even if the bundles on the animal belong to a Jew; If the heathen is not present then Reuven must perform the commandment if the bundles belong to a Jew; Also, if the animal belongs to a Jew; Reuven must perform the commandment even if the bundles on the animal belong to a heathen. However, if the animal and the bundles belong to a heathen, then Reuven must assist him only if it will lead to better relations between Jews and heathens. Nevertheless, in all those instances where Reuven is not obligated to assist, he should nevertheless do so to prevent suffering by the animal.

Priorities in performing the unloading, reloading, or loading
Reuven encounters two animals belonging to two different people, Shimon and Levi, both of whom are friends of his or both of whom are his enemies. Shimon's animal is staggering under its burden and requires to be unloaded; Levi's animal is not yet loaded because Levi cannot find anyone to help him load the animal. Reuven is obligated to first help to unload Shimon's animal. The reason is to relieve the suffering of Shimon's animal.

However, if Levi is Reuven's enemy and Shimon is Reuven's friend, then Reuven is obligated to first load Levi's animal and then to unload Shimon's animal. This is done to subdue Reuven's evil impulse.

A caravan traveling together
In all that is said in this section, if there is a custom as to how to proceed, or if there are rules, such customs and rules must be adhered to. What follows are instances where there are no customs, rules, or laws to follow;
A caravan of mules is traveling together, either all of them loaded with bundles or all of them unloaded. The leg of one of the mules became injured so that it cannot proceed as quickly as the other mules. The remaining animal owners cannot proceed quickly but must proceed at the pace of the injured animal. If the injured animal will be able to proceed after a short wait, the other owners must wait for that period.

However, if the injured animal cannot proceed at all, the other owners are not required to wait for that owner. The caravan is parked for the night and is attacked by pirates or thieves, or by an army that is battling another army. The thieves were paid off and left the caravan. Each member of the caravan has to give his share of the ransom paid in proportion to the value of the goods he is carrying.

Members of a caravan hire a guide to get them to where they are going, through a dangerous place, and they pay the guide in proportion to the value of the goods being carried and also according to the number of people in each vehicle.

The members of the caravan may make any type of stipulations regarding losses and expenses. A vessel carrying goods for several merchants is about to sink and the merchants are told that the vessels will not sink if a certain weight of goods were thrown overboard. All of the merchants must pay their proportion of the value of the goods jettisoned according to the value of the goods, and not according to the weight.

Contemporary applications
Instead of mules or other beasts of burden, the owner is proceeding in a vehicle, a car or a truck that breaks down or has a flat tire, or is stuck in a sand bank or a snow drift. A driver who passes by must try to help the driver of the brokendown vehicle who has a flat tire or who is stuck, if providing such help will not endanger the passerby. This includes helping to unload the truck or other vehicle and helping to reload it.

Or if a truck is proceeding and a carton falls off the truck, and the driver needs help in reloading the carton, other drivers must help him.

Once the broken-down vehicle is in a position to proceed, the helping driver should accompany him to see if the vehicle is indeed now able to travel.
In most instances, police or other safety vehicles will help the driver of the broken- down vehicle. However, many drivers have had experience where a car was stuck on a lonely dark road and there was no way to communicate with the police. A helping hand at that moment would be a Godsend.

Priority in proceeding
A vehicle driven by Reuven and a vehicle driven by Shimon both appear at a bridge going over a small river. The bridge can hold only one vehicle or the lane on the bridge is so narrow that only one vehicle can cross the bridge. Or as sometimes happens, there is only room for one more vehicle on a ferry. Most communities have laws, rules, and regulations governing such situations and these are controlling. Assume, however, that the community does not have traffic laws to govern which vehicle may proceed first. If one of them is a commercial vehicle carrying cargo and the other is a passenger vehicle, the commercial vehicle has priority. If they are both commercial vehicles and one is loaded and the other unloaded, the loaded vehicle has priority. If one is a passenger vehicle and the other an unloaded commercial vehicle, the passenger vehicle has priority.

If both are commercial vehicles, whether both unloaded or both loaded, or both passenger vehicles, then they can arrive at some adjustment between themselves or else cast lots as to who proceeds first. If there is a financial gain by going first, then there may be a money adjustment made by the parties.

That which has been said regarding vehicles holds true for ships as well.
The subject matter of this lesson is more fully discussed in Volume VIII Chapter 261 of A Restatement of Rabbinic Civil Law by E. Quint. Copies of all volumes can be purchased via email: orders@gefenpublishing.com and via website: www.israelbooks.com and at local Judaica bookstores.
Questions to quint@inter.net.il
The lessons of Rabbi Quint's column are now coming from vol.VIII of his monumental work, A Restatement of Rabbinic Civil Law. Vol. IX has been recently released, and vol. X will be out soon, IY"H to complete this important translation and commentary of the sadly neglected part of Shulchan Aruch, CHOSHEN MISHPAT.

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