Q&A: A Teacher’s Lost Object Takes Precedence over One’s Father’s Lost Object
A Teacher’s Lost Object Takes Precedence over One’s Father’s Lost Object
Question
Hello Rabbi,
How does it make sense that Jewish law gives priority to a rabbi over one’s father? After all, the Torah says to honor one’s actual biological father.
And I know the reasoning that “his father brought him into this world, but his rabbi brings him into the World to Come”—but even so, with all the logic of that exposition, does it really have more force than the explicit verse?
Thanks in advance
Answer
Sorry for the delay in replying. For some reason, this question slipped past me.
You present this as a clash between Jewish law and an explicit verse. First of all, it is indeed true that not infrequently an exposition or a halakhic ruling departs from the plain meaning of the verse. But that is not the case here. The verse says that one must honor his father. But the verse does not say how far that goes, nor does it determine how honoring one’s father compares to honoring one’s rabbi. So if you yourself agree that there is logic to this preference, I do not understand what problem you see here. That very logic is what leads the Sages to interpret the verse this way.
This is like arguing that there is a verse requiring us to keep the Sabbath, and then the Sages come along on the basis of reasoning and uproot the verse by ruling that the Sabbath is set aside in cases of saving a life.
Discussion on Answer
One does not raise objections on the basis of “maybe” (“it is possible to object only with difficulty”). Beyond that, I do not see any difference whether there is or is not a verse.
Thanks.
Maybe there is a difference between the issue of Sabbath / saving a life and the issue of honoring one’s rabbi / father.
In the case of saving a life overriding the Sabbath, even if the source is logical reasoning, the Sages still have a verse: “and live by them,” so there is at least some connection to the text itself. But with honoring one’s rabbi taking precedence over one’s father, there is reasoning, but I do not know of any verse…