Halakhah zu Mischlej 8:36

Five are the things they said about bread: (1) Don’t put raw meat on bread; (2) don’t put the cup on top of the bread; (3) don’t put the plate on top of the bread; (4) don’t throw the bread; and (5) don’t sit on the food – so it is taught in the laws of Derekh Eretz.¹³Ibid.Rejoice over your table when the hungry come and enjoy from your table, for that will lengthen your days in this world and earn you life in the world to come. And so also from Derekh Eretz we learn: “Let no guest say, ‘Give me and I shall eat,’ until they speak to him, though it is not necessary to say explicitly that he should eat when on the table in front of him is whatever he needs and is able to eat. For thus it is written in the Torah: “But when food was set before him, he said, ‘I will not eat until I have said what I have to say.'”¹⁴Gen 24:33. Who said anything to Eliezer about eating that he should reply, “I will not eat,” unless he was responding to the fact that the food was prepared, set before him, and up to him to eat? There was no one putting himself between him and his food for him to say to him “I will” or “I will not eat.”

So it is with the talmid hakham in this world; his glory is at the end, as they say about the Torah scroll – “the talmid hakham rolls up the torah scroll in the end.”²⁶An allusion to the honor of rolling and tying the Torah scroll back up after it is read publically in the synagogue service – the honor of being the “golel.” According Chavel, R. Bahya takes “the greatest among them rolls up the sefer torah” in b.Megillah 32a to refer to the talmid hakham, the Torah scholar. I believe R. Bahya is also implying that the reward the torah scholars – talmidei hakhamim – will receive at the “end of this world” is in the world to come, and will be much greater than the perks that the kohanim receive for their hereditary status only in this world.
This expresses the same belief in the spiritual superiority of the talmidei hakhamim over non-torah scholars (‘ammei-ha-‘aretz) about which R. Bahya speaks at length in the previous Second Gate. Moreover, this reflects the general tendency of rabbinic Judaism to supplant the priests with rabbinic Torah scholars as the ideal Jewish religious authorities and role models. However, R. Bahya and his fellow kabbalists accentuate the priest-like, “sacramental” powers of the Torah scholars – those adept in both rabbinic and kabbalisticTorah – by comparing them to the kohanim in the Temple, using priestly language especially to describe their divine service (‘avodah ‘elohit) at the table, the “little Temple” (mikdash me’at). An ordinary Jew who is a talmid hakham ought to confer honor on the kohen by letting him go first, provided that the kohen is a talmid hakham. But if the ordinary Jew were a talmid hakham and the kohen an ‘am ha-‘aretz,²⁷A Jew who is not learned in rabbinic torah. the talmid hakham says the blessing first, for thus they said in the Talmud in the tractate Horayot on the order of statuses: “An illegitimate child [mamzer] who is a talmid hakham has precedence over the High Priest if he is an ‘am ha-‘aretz.”²⁸B. Horayot 13a. If someone who is not a talmid hakham, – driven by his pride and need to dominate – wants to say a blessing over the table instead of a talmid hakham, the talmid hakham may not give him permission to do so. And thus they said in the section in the Talmud about “fellow townsmen”: “Any talmid hakham before whom an ‘am ha-‘aretz, even if he is the High Priest, says a blessing, deserves to die,” as it is said, ‘All those who hate me [mis’anai], love death.’²⁹Prov. 8:36. Wisdom (Hokhmah) personified is the “me” speaking. Don’t read this as mis’anai (those who hate me), but as masniy-ai (those who cause people to hate me).” ³⁰B. Megillah 28a. They said in the laws of Derekh Eretz: “Don’t eat the bread of an ‘am-ha-‘aretz priest [kohen] lest he feed you the holy things dedicated to Heaven.”³¹Derekh Eretz Zuta 1.

It appears to this writer that the wearing of slacks by students attending institutions of Jewish learning and others identified as standard-bearers of Jewish observance poses the possibility of a quite different transgression. Rambam, Hilkhot De'ot 5:9, presents a detailed discussion of the garb appropriate for a talmid ḥakham. A Torah scholar is forbidden to wear gaudy or ostentatious clothes, or garments which are demeaning in nature. The Gemara, Shabbat 114a, interprets Proverbs 8:36 as teaching that a scholar who by his conduct or personal appearance causes animosity and scorn toward Torah scholars brings contempt upon the Torah itself. It is quite evident that the term talmid ḥakham in this context does not refer exclusively to one who has excelled in scholarship but to anyone who is viewed by the public as a member of the scholarly community. It would also appear that the dictum, "The wife of a scholar is as a scholar" is applicable with regard to these provisions. The governing concern is that those viewed as exemplars of Torah study, whether male or female, comport themselves in a way which enhances rather than detracts from the honor and esteem in which Torah is held. Hence, it would seem that as long as slacks are viewed as improper attire by significant segments of the Jewish community, the wearing of such garb by those charged with bearing the banner of Torah should not be sanctioned.