STANDING FOR THE ELDER OR THE ELDERLY?
This passage from the Sifra goes out of its way to restate the meaning of verse so that the plain meaning of seivah is ignored and replaced with the rabbinic meaning of zaken. Here the rabbis do not even bother to reinterpret the meaning of seivah; they simply ignore it by concentrating on the latter half of the couplet. Since it is apparent to the rabbis that a zaken can only mean a scholar, seivah can be understood to mean zaken.
There is a further development of this tendency to favor this rabbinic interpretation of the meaning of the verse in the Tosefta’
What is rising that the Torah mentioned[when it stated]“You shall rise before the aged”?® One stands in front[of the sage] within his four cubits. What is the deference that the Torah mentioned[when it stated][Lev. 19:32]“and show deference to the old”?* One does not stand in his spot and one does not speak in his place and one does not contradict his words.
In this pericope, the rabbis have assimilated the tendenz of the Sifra. They have ignored the plain meaning of seivah and have asserted that it can only mean a rabbinic scholar. In so doing, thest rabbinic sources delimit the biblical moral law of respect for tht elderly and reinterpret it to command respect for the rabbinic class!