In Parshas Mishpatim, we learn about the mitzvos of helping load someone’s animal (te’inah) and unloading it (p’rikah). Although unloading is a bigger mitzvah because then the animal is in discomfort, if the owner of the animal that needs loading is a person’s enemy, then helping him comes first. We can understand this with a story.
David and Shimmy learned together to be plastic surgeons. In their first year of practice, David took a job in a private clinic in a wealthy, frum neighborhood. His most common procedure was permanent makeup. Shimmy, on the other hand, found a position in the hospital in a rough neighborhood, and found himself patching together some of “New York’s finest” (NYPD) on a regular basis. “Shimmy,” David would say when they would meet at avos ubonim on motzei Shabbos, “I get paid twenty times more than you for just removing a pimple! Why are you working so hard in order to get paid less?!” But Shimmy would always say, “I want the experience. In your neighborhood, you never need to replace a blown out face.”
Can you guess who, after a few years, ended up being the more successful surgeon?
Chazal teach us that lakuf es yitzro adif, meaning that it’s better to help load one’s enemy’s animal because then he is conquering his yetzer horah. Even if the mitzvah of t’inah itself is not as valuable as the mitzvah of p’rikah, at the end of the day, helping a person’s enemy will strengthen him and perfect him much more. Sort of like being a doctor in a rough neighborhood! Let’s keep an eye out for all the opportunities we can find to conquer our greatest enemy – the yetzer horah!
