If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it; you must raise it together. (The Hebrew uses the verb “raise” twice in its formulation but is rendered more idiomatically in the JPS English translation.)
D’varim / Deuteronomy 22:4
With him, with the donkey’s owner. However, should the owner not involve himself in alleviating the situation but relies exclusively on you who are commanded to do help the animal then you become exempt from the Torah’s requirements. This is proof that the support which one provides to another person is akin to the support provided by Heaven, namely, it is given only when the individual puts forth their best effort on their own behalf, and having done so, then the support of heaven is given. – Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotsk
For our teacher, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotsk, God grades us, so to speak, more heavily on the effort we put forth then the ultimate result. The Holy One is more concerned in our being involved and engaged then if we are successful in any given mitzvah. Rabbi Menachem Mendel also stresses that we cannot ignore or dismiss our own role and responsibility for the performance of any specific commandment, relying on someone else to step up to the task at hand. Only if one is personally engaged and puts forth one’s best effort, only then does the Holy One acknowledge and appreciate our effort and reward it.
Do not turn a blind eye or ignore the physical needs of the people of Israel from their donkeys to their oxen but rather give them your focus and attention. By doing so the redundancy in the verse becomes clear as an expression of your own uplift that comes as a result of lifting others up. – Tiferet Shlomo1
Building on the model of personal engagement, our teacher, the Tiferet Shlomo encourages us to not look the other way or ignore doing that which is necessary, even, or especially, when the task seems difficult. This is especially true regarding the demands and rigors of Jewish life. It is often easier to not perform a particular command or fulfill a divine expectation. We have also become quite adept at providing ourselves rationalizations for not doing so. For this reason, the Tiferet Shlomo understands the doubling of the verb in our verse as being not just words of encouragement but a promise that we will experience a sense of religious uplift as a product of our performance of sacred tasks.
Shabbat Shalom –
Rabbi David M. Eligberg
1 Rabbi Shlomo Hakohen Rabinowicz (1801 – 16 March 1866) was the first Rebbe of the Radomsk Hasidic dynasty. One of the great Hasidic masters of 19th century Poland he is known as the Tiferet Shlomo, the title of his classic two-volume work containing his comments and interpretations of the Torah which was published following his death.
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