הלכה על איוב 15:15

The host enters first into the house, then the guest after him. And when the guest leaves, the guest leaves first, then the host after him.¹⁷Derekh Eretz Rabba 4. One must beware of saying birkat ha-mazon if one’s father, or teacher, or someone greater in wisdom than he is at the table, unless he gets permission from them. And if there is a kohen among them, one should defer to the kohen, for thus it is written, “And you shall make him holy,”¹⁸Lev. 21:8 and the sages interpreted this in a midrash to mean, “you shall make him holy in everything that involves holiness, such as letting him open first, say a blessing first, take the nicest portion first, since a person is required to bestow honors upon the seed of Aaron.¹⁹B.Gittin 59b. And if there’s a kohen who’s a talmid hakham (i.e., a Torah scholar)²⁰Lit., “disciple of a sage,” i.e., someone learned in rabbinic Torah. and an ordinary Jew who’s a talmid hakham, and the kohen wishes to bestow an honor on him, he may. For it is said about a kohen, “You shall make him holy [ve-kidashto]” but it is also said about ordinary Israelites “Set bounds about the mountain and make it holy [ve-kidashto],” and in the entire Torah there are only these two occurrences of “ve-kidashto:” one at the beginning of the verse, the other at the end of the verse.²¹Lev. 21:8 and Ex. 19:23. In Ex. 19:23, Moses says to the Lord, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you warned us saying, “set bounds about the mountain and make it holy [ve-kidashto].” However, R. Bahya takes the “it” in the pronominal suffix of ve-kidashto to refer to “the people [ha-‘am],” i.e., the Israelites, not the mountain. Grammatically both are masculine singular. This comes to teach about the kohen, that his greatness comes when he begins things, like opening first, or saying a blessing first. But the talmid hakham, his greatness comes at the end, which we derive from what is written, “to the holy ones [la-kedoshim] who are in the land,”²²Ps. 16:3. which the sages interpret in a midrash to mean the holy ones are not called “holy ones” until they have been given their “land.”²³Midrash Tehillim on Ps. 16:3. as it is said, “they become holy ones [la-kedoshim]- those who are in the land.”²⁴The midrash seems to read la-kedoshim (“to the holy ones) as if it were in the Hebrew grammatical construction “hayu le-:” “they became holy ones.” But about them during their lifetime it is written, “He should not trust that he is among His holy ones.”²⁵Job 15:15, as R. Bahya creatively reads the verse, which the JSB translates “He puts no trust in His Holy ones.”