Here we'll talk about whom a person returns lost objects to first if he finds items belonging to different people, or his own item. The Mishnah says that if somebody is able to take only one object, and he has his own lost object that he wants to take back, or he can take his father's lost object, his own lost item takes precedence over his father's. The same applies to his rabbi. If a person's own lost item is out there and his rabbi's lost item is also out there, and he's only able to grab one of them, he saves his own first. His own takes precedence over his teacher's.
When he isn't able to take both or help in both situations, a person has to fend for himself. He has to care about his own needs before the needs of others. But if his father's lost item and his rabbi's lost item are out there, and he's only able to save one of them, he saves his teacher's, his rabbi's lost item. That takes precedence over his father's lost item. If his father's lost item and his rabbi's lost item are out there, and he's only able to save one of them, he saves his teacher's lost item. His father, of course, is someone he has to appreciate for bringing him into this world, but his father has provided only for his physical needs. His rabbi, who taught him Torah, taught him chokhmah, wisdom. We're talking about somebody who had a rabbo muvhak, somebody who taught him the majority of his wisdom. His rabbi taught him Torah, and Torah brings a person to the world to come. So when there's a conflict between a father and a rabbi, the rabbi gets help first because the rabbi is giving him life in the next world.
But if his father was a talmid chacham (a Torah scholar), and his father taught him some Torah, even though his rabbi taught him the majority of Torah, in that unique scenario he saves his father's item over his rabbi's item. That combination of his father bringing him into this physical world, and his father giving him Torah and helping him get to olam haba (the world to come), would take precedence over his rabbi, who taught him the majority of his wisdom.
There are other similar rulings. I am a Talmid HaKam. I am a Talmid HaKam. I am a Talmid HaKam. If he sees his father and his rabbi carrying heavy packages on their backs, and both need help unloading those packages, he helps his rabbi and then he helps his father. If he sees his father and his rabbi held captive as hostages, and they both need to be ransomed, he first ransoms him, then he ransoms his rabbi, and then he ransoms his father, because his father brought him only into this physical world, but his rabbi is bringing him into the world to come, olam haba. Ve'im haya aviv talmid chacham, podeh et aviv, ve'achar kach podeh et rabo. Similar logic to what we had earlier. If his father was a talmid chacham, a Torah scholar, and his rabbi was there, his rabbi taught him a rov chokhmato, the majority of his wisdom, he first ransoms his father, and then he ransoms his teacher. Again, that combination—his father bringing him into this world, and his father teaching him some Torah, which would bring him to the next world—takes precedence over his rabbi, who taught him the majority of his Torah. The same logic also applies to the middle case we mentioned, which was unloading packages.