A. STANLEY DREYFUS
different from that to be accorded the septuagenarian. Seivah, the text informs us, is to be acknowledged by kimah, rising, whereas the zaken is to be granted hiddur, respect.(It is difficult to find a single English word to convey the nuances of the root hadar, which we render variously as respect, deference, veneration. In the Bible it can be used as well for showing favoritism[Lev. 19:15] or adorning[Isa. 63:1].) On vehadarta Rashi provides illustrations rather than a definition: One should not occupy the seat of the one entitled to siddur, nor precede him in speaking, nor contradict him. But perhaps the two clauses merely repeat each other, a frequent literary device in Scripture, and both the person of sixty and the one of seventy are to be recognized by rising to demonstrate respect. We look to the rabbinic deliberations for a solution.
In Sefer Hamitzvot, Maimonides ’ compendium of the 613 commandments of the Torah , he lists as Positive Commandment 209 the injunction“to honor sages, to rise before them, and to exalt them,” finding these obligations set out in our verse. Likewise, in the Mishneh Torah he classifies this mitzvah among the regulations governing the study of Torah (Hilkhot Talmud Torah 6:1), reading it as requiring deference to all scholars.” Thus, contrary to the clear intent of the Torah , which mandates respect for all elderly persons, Maimonides restricts the display of deference to a learned elite, most of whom would have already qualified for such attention by reason of their age. In making the sages the only beneficiaries of kimah vehiddur, Maimonides is basing himself on Sifra Kedoshim 7:12(the passage is Tepeated in 7.B. Kiddushin 32b, Targum Onkelos, and Targum Yerushalmi I on Lev. 19:32).
The motivation for this radical reformulation of the explicit Mandate of the Torah obviously arises from the rabbi-legislators’
87