Hilchos Talmud Torah – Chapter 6: The Honor and Awe Due to a Torah Scholar
- The Obligation to Honor All Torah Scholars
It is a mitzvah to honor every Torah scholar, even if he is not one’s teacher.
One must stand when the scholar comes within four cubits and remain standing until he passes.
This obligation is derived from the command to honor the wise.
- When Standing Is Not Required
One does not stand for a scholar:
- in a bathhouse or toilet, where honor is not expressed,
- while engaged in paid labor, since standing should not cause financial loss.
One may not avert his eyes to avoid standing; matters of conscience are governed by fear of G-d.
- The Scholar’s Responsibility Not to Burden Others
A Torah scholar should not deliberately place himself where people must stand for him.
The Sages would take indirect routes to avoid troubling the public.
- Standing for a Scholar Who Is Riding
A scholar who is riding is treated like one who is walking.
One must stand for him just as if he were on foot.
- Order of Walking with Scholars
When three people walk together:
- the teacher walks in the center,
- the greater student on his right,
- the lesser student on his left.
- Levels of Honor: Scholar, Av Beit Din, and Nasi
- Scholar: stand within four cubits; sit once he passes.
- Av Beit Din: stand from sight until he passes four cubits.
- Nasi: stand from sight until he reaches his place or disappears.
The Nasi may waive his honor. In the study hall, special procedures apply for the Nasi and Av Beit Din.
- Conduct in the House of Study
One stands for a scholar as he approaches each person.
Scholars should not habitually enter last.
If one leaves temporarily, he may return to his place.
Children of scholars turn toward their father if capable of understanding; otherwise, toward the congregation.
- Standing for One’s Teacher Regularly
A student who sits constantly before his teacher stands for him only twice daily—morning and evening—so that the honor shown does not exceed that shown to G-d.
- Honoring the Elderly
One must stand before a person of advanced age, even if he is not a scholar.
A young scholar must show respect to an elderly man, though not necessarily full standing.
Even an elderly gentile is to be addressed respectfully and assisted.
- Privileges and Exemptions of Torah Scholars
Torah scholars:
- are exempt from communal labor and taxes,
- are not required to contribute to city defenses or royal gifts,
- may sell merchandise first,
- receive priority in court cases,
- may sit while others stand.
These privileges preserve the dignity of Torah.
- The Severity of Disgracing Torah Scholars
Disgracing or hating Torah scholars is a grave sin.
Jerusalem was destroyed because its inhabitants scorned the sages.
One who disgraces scholars has no share in the World to Come.
- Ostracism for Disgracing Scholars
A person who disgraces a scholar may be placed under public excommunication, fined, and barred until he repents and appeases the scholar.
This applies even after the scholar’s death.
A scholar may impose a ban to protect his honor without witnesses or prior warning.
- Whose Bans Are Binding
- A ban imposed by a teacher binds all students.
- A ban imposed by a student does not bind his teacher.
- A ban for the honor of the Nasi binds all Jews.
- A citywide ban binds other cities; an external ban does not bind one’s own city.
- General Laws of Ostracism
For most offenses warranting excommunication, everyone, including the Nasi, must comply until repentance.
The Rambam lists 24 offenses for which a ban may be imposed, including:
- One who disgraces a Torah scholar, even after the scholar’s death.
- One who embarrasses a messenger of the court.
- One who calls his fellow Jew a slave.
- One who was summoned to court and failed to appear.
- One who treats even a single rabbinic law with disrespect (and certainly a Torah law).
- One who refuses to comply with a court’s ruling.
- One who keeps a dangerous object (e.g., vicious dog, unsafe ladder) and does not remove it.
- One who sells land to a gentile and does not accept responsibility for damage caused to Jewish neighbors.
- One who testifies against a Jew in a secular court, causing unjust financial loss.
- A kohen butcher who refuses to give the priestly gifts.
- One who desecrates the second day of Yom Tov in the Diaspora.
- One who performs work on Erev Pesach after midday.
- One who takes God’s Name in vain or swears casually.
- One who causes the public to desecrate God’s Name.
- One who causes the public to eat sacrificial food outside its proper place.
- One who calculates leap years or fixes the calendar outside the Land of Israel.
- One who causes the morally unaware to stumble (lifnei iver).
- One who prevents the public from performing a mitzvah.
- A butcher who sells non‑kosher meat.
- A butcher who does not inspect his knife before a scholar.
- One who intentionally causes himself to have an erection.
- One who divorced his wife and then enters business dealings with her, causing improper interaction.
- A Torah scholar with an unsavory public reputation.
- One who places another person under a ban unjustly.
