“ ‘You shall rise up before the gray head and honor the face of the elderly; and you shall fear your God. I am Yahweh.
To respect the elderly and rise before the aged
The cited verse
The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)
מִפְּנֵי שֵׂיבָה תָּקוּם וְהָדַרְתָּ פְּנֵי זָקֵן וְיָרֵאתָ מֵאֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲנִי יְהוָה
In Maimonides’ words
How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.
היא שצונו לכבד החכמים ולקום מפניהם ולגדל אותם. והוא אמרו יתעלה מפני שיבה תקום והדרת פני זקן. ולשון ספרא תקום והדרת קימה שיש בה הדור. וכבר התבארו משפטי מצוה זו בפרק ראשון מקדושין. ודע שעם היות מצוה זו מחוייבת לאנשים כלם בכלל כלומר לכבד החכמים ואפילו לחכם ששוה לו בחכמה כמו שבארו באמרם (ב"מ ל"ג) ת"ח שבבבל (היו) עומדים זה מפני זה דע שיש בכבוד דברים נוספים על התלמיד, וזה כי כבוד התלמיד לרבו יש בו תוספת גדולה על הכבוד שהוא מחוייב לחכם ויתחייב לו עם הכבוד המורא כי הם כבר בארו שחק רבו עליו כחק אביו שחייבו הכתוב לכבדו ולירא ממנו. ובבאור אמרו (שם) אביו ורבו רבו קודם. וכבר אמרו (סנהדרין ה':) שאינו מותר לחלוק עם רבו רוצה לומר בחלוק לצאת מהוראתו ודינו ושיסמוך בחכמתו וילמד או ידון ויורה אלא אם כן יתן לו רשות ואין מותר לו להתקוטט עמו או להתרעם ממנו ולא לחשדו שיהרהר אחריו בפועל או במאמר ממיני הרהור כי אפשר שלא רצה זה. ובפרק חלק (סנהדרין דף ק"י) אמרו כל החולק על רבו כאילו הוא חולק על השכינה שנאמר בהצותם על ה', וכל העושה מריבה עם רבו כאילו עושה מריבה עם הקב"ה שנאמר המה מי מריבת קדש וגו', וכל המתרעם על רבו כאלו מתרעם על השכינה שנאמר לא עלינו תלונותיכם כי על ה', וכל המהרהר על רבו כאילו מהרהר על השכינה שנאמר וידבר העם באלהים ובמשה, וזה כלו מבואר כי מחלוקת קרח ומריבת בני ישראל ותלונתם והאשימם וחשדם אמנם היה עם משה שהיה רבן של כל ישראל ושם הכתוב כל ענין מהם על ה'. ובבאור אמרו (אבות פ"ד) מורא רבך כמורא שמים, וזה כלו לקוח בראיה מהיות הכתוב מצוה לכבד את האבות והחכמים כמו שהתבאר במקומות רבים מהתלמוד לא שהיה מצוה בפני עצמה, והבן זה. (קדושים תהיו, מדע הלכות תלמוד תורה):
That is that He commanded us to honor the sages, to rise in front of them and to glorify them. And that is His, may He be exalted, saying, "In the presence of the elderly you shall rise and you shall respect an elder" (Leviticus 19:32). And the language of the Sifra is, "Rising that has honor." And the regulations of this commandment have already been explained in the first chapter of Kiddushin. And you should know that even if this commandment is obligatory for all people in general - meaning to honor sages, and even [towards] a sage that is one's equal in wisdom, like they explained in their saying (Bava Metzia 33a), "The Torah scholars in Babylonia would stand up for one another" - you should know that there are additional [obligations] of honor for the student. And that is because the honor a student is obligated towards his teacher is much more than the honor due to a sage [in general]. And along with the honor, he is obligated to fear him. For they have already explained that the law of his teacher upon him is like the law of his father, whom Scripture has obligated him to honor and fear. And they already said (Sanhedrin 5b) that it is not permissible to disagree with his rabbi - meaning a disagreement that breaks with his instruction and legal decision, such that he relies upon his [own] wisdom and teaches or decides and instructs, unless [his teacher] gives him permission. And it is not permissible to quarrel with him, nor to get upset with him. And he may not suspect him regarding his actions or words with various suspicions, as it is possible that this was not [his teacher's] intention. And in the chapter [entitled] Chelek (Sanhedrin 110a), they said, "Anyone who disagrees with his teacher is as if he disagrees with the Divine Presence, as it is stated (Numbers 26:9), 'when they strove against the Lord.' And anyone who argues with his teacher is as if he argues with the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is stated (Numbers 20:13), 'These are the waters of Meribah, [where the children of Israel quarreled with the Lord].' And anyone who gets upset with his teacher is as if he is upset with the Divine Presence, as it is stated (Exodus 16:8), 'Your complaints are not against us, but against the Lord.' And anyone who suspects his teacher is as if he suspects the Divine Presence, as it is stated (Numbers 21:5), 'And the people spoke against God, and against Moses.'" And this is completely clear, since the disagreement of Korach and the argument of the Children of Israel - and their complaint and their accusation and their suspicion - was with Moshe, who was the teacher of all of Israel; but Scripture put all of these matters of theirs towards God. And in the explanation (Avot 4:12), they said, "The fear of your teacher is like the fear of the Heavens." And [this fear] is all deduced and proved from Scripture's commanding [us] to honor parents and sages, as is explained in many places in the Talmud - but that [does not make] it a separate commandement. And understand this. (See Parashat Kedoshim; Mishneh Torah, Torah Study).
Hebrew: Sefer HaMitzvot, Warsaw 1883 (public domain). English: Sefaria Edition, trans. Rabbi Francis Nataf, 2021 (CC0). Via Sefaria; translator’s footnotes omitted.
Literary form: a flat, unconditional command
Applicability
How the catalog describes where and when this commandment applies. These are independent descriptions, not a verdict on which laws still count.
- Recorded as practiced today
Classical halakhic consequences
The consequences the classical halakhah attaches to this commandment, grouped by who imposes them. Where a category has none recorded, that absence is itself meaningful.
Imposed by a court
No court-imposed penalty is recorded.
At the hands of Heaven
No divinely-imposed consequence is recorded.
Ritual remedy
No ritual remedy is recorded.
How the streams of Judaism treat this commandment
The streams of Judaism read the same commandment differently — an ongoing plurality, not a ranking. Each position below is reported as the catalog records it; none is presented as the correct one.
- Orthodox Binding
- Conservative Binding
- Reform Kept as an ethical principle
- Reconstructionist Kept as an ethical principle
- Karaite Binding
24 of 613 commandments have been examined in depth so far — this one is queued.
How later traditions received this commandment
How later traditions read or reworked this commandment, each attributed to its own voice. The catalog’s own classification of each reception is shown as it records it, never adopted as GEBible’s.
Rabbinic aggadah
- Genesis Rabbah 65:9 expanded it homiletically aggadic material on age and physical signs of aging; relevance to the elder-honor command is loosely associative rather than a direct exposition of Lev 19:32
Josephus
- Against Apion 2.206 affirmed it Josephus enjoins honor for elders alongside parents, presenting age-deference as a fundamental ordinance
The New Testament
- 1 Timothy 5:1-2 affirmed it exhorts honoring older men/women as parents; ethical uptake of age-deference within the early Christian community
Where this commandment meets modern human-rights frameworks
One modern normative lens, attributed to it — not GEBible’s assessment. Each row names the framework it measures against and the catalog’s own classification of the relation.
This framework catalogues tensions; it records agreement in only one of its entries. The near-total tension rate is the shape of the instrument, not a finding.
No tension with the catalogued modern frameworks is recorded here.