Комментарий к Шмот 23:5

כי תראה חמור שנאך וגו׳ IF THOU SEE THE ASS OF HIM THAT HATETH THEE etc. — כי here has the meaning of “possibly”, “perhaps”, which is one of the four meanings which the word כי serves to express. The sense of the verse is accordingly the following: Can you possibly see his ass crouching beneath his burden and forbear to help him? (The Hebrew word בתמיה in Rashi means “Say this in the intonation of a question”, and is nothing more than our question mark).

חמור שנאך, the Torah uses the most likely scenario as its model. [Clearly, you are to do no less for the animal of a friend or relative.]

וחדלת מעזוב לו, “and you would refrain from assisting him;” this is a veiled warning that you must not dare abandoning him to his problems just because the owner of the beast has a record of being hostile to you. On the contrary, you must make every effort to assist such a person, provided he too does his share in enabling the overloaded beast to get rid of its burden.

עזוב תעזוב עמו, “you shall help him with it (even repeatedly).” This concerns the commandment to unload the beast (Baba Metzia 32). The interpretation is based on the verse being superfluous as we could have deduced this message from the words in Deut. 22,4 where the Torah writes about a similar situation הקם תקים עמו, “help him to stand it up.” If the Torah commands us to help someone load his beast, how much more would it be in place for the Torah to command us to help unload a beast which broke down under an overload! Nonetheless, the Torah writes both laws in order to teach that there are different considerations which determine the legislation in these two situations. Help in unloading must be extended without charge, whereas help in loading may be charged for. The reason one may not charge for helping to unload the beast in our verse is because alleviating pain of animals is a Biblical commandment, may have to be performed even without the assistance of the owner.

וחדלת מעזוב לו, “and you feel like refraining from raising it;” you are warned not to remain inactive when faced with the animal’s distress, even if its owner is your enemy. This is also the way the Onkelos understands the word לו, seeing that he describes the Torah’s reflecting the first reaction of the finder here being that he is not called upon to do for his enemy’s property what he himself has failed to do, but that he at least has to assist him. This interpretation is also hinted at in Rashi’s commentary on Deuteronomy 13,9, where he emphasizes that one’s enemy is exempt from the commandment: “to love your fellow man as yourself.” He quotes Sifrey as his source for his interpretation of the words; .לא תאבה לו

עזב תעזב עמו — The root עזב has here the meaning of “helping”. It has a similar meaning in, (Deuteronomy 32:36) “assisted and helped (עזוב)”. Similar also is, (Nehemiah 3:8) “ויעזבו Jerusalem up to the wall” — i. e. they filled it up with earth in order to help and to support the strength of the wall. A similar use of כי is, (Deuteronomy 7:17, 18) כי תאמר בלבבך רבים הגוים האלה וגו׳ which means “Canst thou possibly (כי) speak thus? לא תירא מהם, Do not be afraid of them and speak thus”. Our Rabbis expounded it in a Halachic sense as follows: … כי תראה וחדלת “If thou seest etc. …וחדלת” — there are occasions when you may forbear and there are occasions when you must help. How so? If it is an old man who sees the ass in this condition and it is not compatible with his dignity to intervene, then וחדלת “thou mayest forbear” holds good; or if the animal belongs to a heathen and its burden to an Israelite then, also, וחדלת may be applied (cf. Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 23:5:3).

עזוב חעזוב, an expression meaning assistance, support. The word occurs in this sense also in Nechemyah 3,8 ויעזבו ירושלים עד החומה, “they restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad wall.” We also find the word in this sense in Deuteronomy 32,36 ואפס עצור ועזוב, “and neither bond nor free is left.”

תעזוב עמו, these words have been interpreted in the Talmud Baba Metzia folio 32 as meaning that the Torah does not instruct the owner of that donkey to sit down while you alone attend to his donkey’s problem, but that you are called upon only not to abandon the animal but to assist the owner in relieving his donkey’s discomfort. If his owner has abandoned his beast, the enemy of his owner need not do the work by himself. [Torah legislation addresses human beings, not angels. Ed.]

עזב תעזב עמו THOU SHALT SURELY HELP HIM — to unload the burden (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 23:5:4). Onkelos also translates it in this sense: מלמשקל ליה which means, [Thou shalt not keep back] from taking the load from off it.

עמו, “with him;” it is impossible for one person alone to unload the burden carried by this animal while it is in a state of collapse. Two men have to work, one on each side of the animal.