Honor
According to the Talmud, it is a commandment (mitzvah) to stand up for a Rabbi or Torah scholar, and one should also stand for their spouses and address them with respect. Kohanim are required to honor Rabbis and Torah scholars like everybody else. However, if one is more learned than the Rabbi or the scholar there is no need to stand.
In many places today and throughout history, Rabbis and Torah scholars had and still have the power to place individuals who insulted them in excommunication.
Read more about this topic: Women Rabbis
Famous quotes containing the word honor:
“Trousers and the reputation of not being a thief are similar in the following way: There is no particular honor in having them but once they are lost, everyone thinks they have the right to insult us.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!”
—Claude McKay (1889–1948)
“My ambition for station was always easily controlled. If the place came to me it was welcome. But it never seemed to me worth seeking at the cost of self-respect, or independence. My family were not historic; they were well-to-do, did not hold or seek office. It was easy for me to be contented in private life. An honor was no honor to me, if obtained by my own seeking.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)