Commentary for Leviticus 19:32

מפני שיבה תקום THOU SHALT RISE UP BEFORE A HOARY HEAD — One might think this reverence is also due to an ignorant old man! Scripture however says זקן — "thou shalt honour the face of the ״זקן — and זקן denotes only one who has acquired wisdom (Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 7 12;Kiddushin 32b).

THOU SHALT RISE UP BEFORE THE HOARY HEAD. “I might think that one is to rise before an uncultured old man; Scripture therefore states, and thou shalt honor the face of ‘zakein’ (the old man). Zakein [from the root kanah, acquire] means only one who has ‘acquired’ wisdom.” This is Rashi’s language. And the text of the Torath Kohanim,²⁰²Torath Kohanim, Kedoshim 7:12. as it is taught in the Gemara of Tractate Kiddushin²⁰³Kiddushin 32 b. [is as follows: “I might think that one is to rise before an uncultured old man;] Scripture therefore states zakein, the word zakein meaning only one who is wise, as it is said, Gather unto Me seventy men ‘miziknei’ (of the elders) of Israel.²⁰⁴Numbers 11:16. And since these seventy elders were to constitute together with Moses the members of the Sanhedrin, it is clear that miziknei means “of the wise men” of Israel. And Rabbi Yosei the Galilean says: The word zakein means only one who has ‘acquired’ wisdom, as it is said, The Eternal ‘kanani’ (made me) [literally: acquired me, i.e., wisdom] at the beginning of His way.”²⁰⁵Proverbs 8:22. The sense conveyed is: “G-d created me [i.e., wisdom] to be His acquisition at the beginning of Creation.” Now according to the words of both of them [i.e., the First Sage in this Beraitha and Rabbi Yosei the Galilean], this commandment [of honoring the aged] applies only if he is a scholar. And Onkelos who rendered the verse before us: “thou shalt rise up before him who understands [the knowledge of] the Torah, and honor the face of the aged,” would also seem to agree with this opinion [that zakein is one who “acquired” wisdom]. Yet despite all this, the concluding opinion of the Gemara in accordance with the final decision of the law is not so, for the Rabbis have said [in the Gemara]:²⁰³Kiddushin 32 b. “Isi the son of Yehudah says: Any hoary head is included [under the terms of this commandment], and Rabbi Yochanan said: The final decision of the law is as Isi the son of Yehudah interpreted it.” Thus Scripture is commanding [in the first half of the verse] to honor any old man, even the uncultured, that is, the unlearned, and then [in the second half of the verse] it gives another commandment concerning the zakein, that is one who has acquired wisdom, even if he be young and learned. It is possible that this is also the opinion of Onkelos, except that he translated the hoary head as “young and learned” [and hence the first half of his translation reads, “thou shalt rise up before him who understands — the knowledge of the Torah,” meaning even if he is young and learned], since the term zakein [in the second half of the verse, which clearly means “one who has acquired wisdom”] came and indicated that the term hoary head includes all kinds of old age, whether old in the knowledge of the Torah or old in days.²⁰⁶For otherwise why did the Torah use two different terms: seiva (the hoary head) and zakein (the old man)? Onkelos thus reasoned that since zakein definitely means “he who has acquired wisdom,” it shows that seiva must mean all kinds of old people, whether learned or not learned. Hence in translating the verse he rendered zakein first and then seiva, although in the Hebrew text the order of the terms is the opposite. In short, then, it may be that Onkelos also agrees with the opinion of Isi the son of Yehudah that one must show honor to all kinds of old people, whether aged in the knowledge of the Torah or just aged in years.

מפני שיבה תקום, while it is in order to show respect and deference to someone whose experience in life is based on his age, this does not compare to the respect and deference that we must show to