Attitudes toward Sages and Elders
4. The Talmud says that a person's primary teacher is the one from whom they have received most of their spiritual knowledge or the keys to understanding it. He deserves greater respect than one's father, because a father brings a person into this world, while a Teacher guides them toward self-improvement and opens the gates of the World to Come for them.
5. A renowned sage and righteous man who is known for his Torah knowledge and surpasses others in it also deserves special respect and is considered equivalent to one's primary teacher.
6. Three items are lying by the roadside: one was lost by a person's teacher, another by his father, and the third by the person himself. If he does not have time to pick up all the items at once to return them to their owners, but can take only one (for example, if he is traveling and the fate of everyone on the expedition depends on him), he should take only the item that belongs to him. If there are only two items, one belonging to his father and the other to his primary teacher, the teacher's item must be returned first.
The same applies when one's primary teacher and father are in captivity and, for some reason, one cannot free (ransom) them both at once. In this case, one's teacher must be freed first. This rule of precedence also applies to the laws of helping others, for example, with loading or unloading when one person cannot easily manage the task alone.
However, if the father also possesses Torah wisdom, he takes precedence.
7. If a father pays for his son's education, the teacher who accepts payment for teaching takes second place, and accordingly, the father must be helped first rather than the teacher.
But if the teacher would continue his lessons even without this money, he retains precedence.
8. One who rejects his teacher's words, disputes them in order to humiliate him, or simply quarrels with him is considered like one who rebels against the Shechinah (Divine Presence). One who thinks ill of his teacher or another Torah sage is as though he thinks ill of the Almighty Himself. If someone treats Torah sages with contempt, the Shechinah departs from the people of Israel.
9. It is forbidden to answer people's complex halachic questions or to teach without one's teacher's consent, even if the student is in another country; all the more so is it forbidden to do this in the teacher's presence. However, if a student finds himself in a place where people are violating prohibitions out of ignorance, he is permitted to teach them the basics in order to prevent transgressions.