"If you see the donkey of someone whom you hate lying under its burden, you shall surely help with him. It is your duty to unload it." Torah teaches that whether or not you like or dislike a person who has a donkey (or any other animal) that is stumbling, you must stop and help. Don't pass by any person or animal that is loaded down with burdens and not extend yourself. If the donkey falls or stumbles again, load and unload it, even a hundred times. This teaches us not to offer help in a token manner, but to do everything thoroughly, to the very end. We see this same teaching in Zen practice, which tells us to sit deeply, pay attention to every little detail of our life, and offer ourselves wholeheartedly to everything we do.

This mitzvah is a prototype of how to make peace both in the family and in the world. Everything that needs help is responded to; a person, his family, friends, animals, or anything belonging to him. Whenever you see a need, step in and help unconditionally.

Brenda Shoshanna in Jewish Dharma