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:
“The cross of the Legion of Honor has been conferred on me. However, few escape that distinction.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“For most Northerners, Texas is the home of real men. The cowboys, the rednecks, the outspoken self-made right-wing millionaires strike us as either the best or worst examples of American manliness.... The ideal is not an illusion nor is it contemptible, no matter what damage it may have done. Many people who scorn it in conversation want to submit to it in bed. Those who believe machismo reeks of violence alone choose to forget it once stood for honor as well.”
—Edmund White (b. 1940)
“He thought, the madman, it was an honor to be feared.”
—Silius Italicus (26–101)