"It's Cool." Or is it? Kiddushin 32a-b

Eleazar b. Mathia said: If my father orders me, ‘Give me a drink of water’, while I have a precept to perform, I disregard my father's honour and perform the precept, since both my father and I are bound to fulfil the precepts. Issi b. Judah maintained: If the precept can be performed by others, it should be performed by others, while he should bestir himself for his father's honour. Said R. Mattena: The halachah agrees with Issi b. Judah.

R. Isaac b. Shila said in R. Mattena's name in the name of R. Hisda: If a father renounces the honour due to him, it is renounced; but if a Rabbi renounces his honour, it is not renounced. R. Joseph ruled: Even if a Rabbi renounces his honour, it is renounced, for it is said: And the Lord went before them by day the world is His and the Torah is His; [hence] He can forego His honor. Said Raba: How compare! There, with respect to the Holy One, blessed be He,

But here, is then the Torah his [the Rabbi's]?

Subsequently Raba said: Indeed, the Torah is his [the scholar's], for it is written, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

But that is not so! For Raba was serving drink at his son's wedding, and when he offered a cup to R. Papa and R. Huna son of R. Joshua, they stood up before him; but [when he offered] R. Mari and R. Phineas son of R. Hisda, they did not stand up before him. Thereupon he was offended and exclaimed: ‘Are these Rabbis and the others not!’ It also happened that R. Papa was serving drink at the wedding of Abba Mar, his son; when he offered a cup to R. Isaac son of Rab Judah, he did not rise before him, whereupon he was offended!— Even so, they should have shewn him respect.

R. Ashi said: Even on the view that if a Rabbi renounces his honour it is renounced, yet if a Nasi

renounces his honour, his renunciation is invalid. An objection is raised: It once happened that R. Eliezar, R. Joshua and R. Zadok were reclining at a banquet of Rabban Gamaliel's son, while Rabban Gamaliel was standing over them and serving drink. On his offering a cup to R. Eliezer, he did not accept it; but when he offered it to R. Joshua, he did. Said R. Eliezer to him, ‘What is this, Joshua: we are sitting, while Rabban Gamaliel is standing over us and serving drink!’ ‘We find that even a greater than he acted as servitor’, he replied: ‘Abraham was the greatest man of his age, it is written of him, and he stood over them. And should you say that they appeared to him as Ministering Angels — they appeared to him only as Arabs. Then shall not R. Gamaliel Berabbi stand over us and offer drink! Said R. Zadok unto them: ‘How long will you disregard the honor of the Omnipresent and occupy yourselves with the honour of men! The Holy One, blessed be He, causeth the winds to blow,

before every one; and we — shall not R. Gamaliel Berabbi stand over us and offer drink’! —

But if stated, it was thus stated: R. Ashi said: Even on the view that if a Nasi renounces his honour it is

valid, yet if a king renounces his honour it is not, for it is said, thou shalt surely set a king over thee, teaching that his authority shall be over thee.

(6) One who sees a sage does not stand until he gets within four cubits of his proximity. And once he has passed by, he may sit. If one sees a beit din standing before him, he must stand from the moment he sees them from afar with a full eye, and may not sit until they pass by him four cubits away. If he saw the Nasi standing before him with a full eye, he must stand and may not sit until the Nasi sits or he is not visible. And the Nasi who gives up his honor, it is forgiven. When the Nasi enters, all the people stand and do not sit until he tells them to sit. When the Av Beit Din enters, they make two rows standing side by side until he enters and sits in his place, and then the rest of the people sit in their places.

One is obligated to stand before his father. and if the father is a student of the son, both of them stand before the other. Note: But if the son wishes to give up his honor in order to serve his father, he may do so, for a rabbi who gives up his honor, it is forgiven. This applies in private, and even in public if he is known in the town, for everyone knows that he is his father. However, if the son is a Gadol ba-Torah and his father is not known in the town, we must be concerned about an embarrassment of Torah if the son debases himself before his father. In such a case the two should keep apart from one another so that neither will treat the other's dignity lightly.

It is forbidden for a man to place a yoke upon his children, or to insist on his due honor with them, in order that he should not place a stumbling block before them. Rather, he should be forgiving and should look the other way from them, for the father who forgoes his honor, his honor is forgone.