Baba Metzia 2:10-11

Baba Metzia 2:10

If a person found an animal in a stable, he is not responsible for it; if he found it in the public domain, he is responsible for it. If the animal is in a cemetery, a kohein may not render himself ritually unclean in order to deal with it. If one’s father told him to become ritually impure or not to return a lost object, one does not comply. If one repeatedly unloaded and loaded a burdened animal, even four or five times, he must continue to do so, as per Exodus 23:5, “You shall surely help with him.” If the animal’s owner went and sat down, saying that the other person is obligated to do it by the Torah, then the other person is exempt because the Torah says “with him.” If the animal’s owner is old or sick, one is obligated to do it alone. The Torah requires one to unload the animal but not to load it; Rabbi Shimon says that one is also obligated to load it. Rabbi Yosi HaGlili says that if the animal had on it more than its capacity to bear, one has no obligation to assist the owner because the Torah says (ibid.), “under its burden,” meaning a burden that is appropriate for the animal.

Baba Metzia 2:11

If a person has lost property and his father has lost property, his own lost property comes first. Between his lost property and his teacher's lost property, his own lost property comes first. Between his father's lost property and his teacher's lost property, the teacher's lost property comes first. This is because his father brought him into this world but his teacher, who taught him Torah, brings him into the Next World. If his father is a Torah scholar, then the father's lost property comes first. If his father and his teacher were each carrying a burden, he relieves his teacher first and then his father. If his father and his teacher were being held captive, he ransoms his teacher first and then his father; if his father is a Torah scholar, then he ransoms his father first, followed by the teacher.