Kiddushin 31b

קידושין ל״א ע״ב

Learn Kiddushin 31b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

Stories and rules of כיבוד אב ואם: personal service, honor in life and death, and the definitions of מורא and כיבוד

Overview

This amud is full of stories and teachings about כיבוד אב ואם. רבי אבהו praises his son אבימי, who personally ran to open the door for him and stood over him while he slept. אביי tells רב יעקב בר אבוה he may accept service from his mother but not from his father, a תלמיד חכם. רבי טרפון is told that letting his mother step on him is not even half of כיבוד, and רב יוסף would stand up for his mother as if for the שכינה. רב אסי leaves his elderly mother for ארץ ישראל. When she follows him, he asks רבי יוחנן whether he may go out to meet her, and רבי יוחנן answers only with a blessing, which רבי אלעזר reads as permission. Then a ברייתא teaches how to honor a father in life and after death. Another ברייתא explains that a חכם does not say his father's name plainly, though his תורגמן may. The amud ends by defining מורא and כיבוד and opening a new question that continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (35)

1. StatementGrinding with a millstone can bring a son to the World to Come
2. Statementרבי אבהו points to his son as a model of honoring parents
3. Statementאבימי runs to open the door for his father
4. Statementאבימי waits over his sleeping father and is rewarded
5. QuestionMay a son let his parents serve him?
6. ResponseAccept from your mother, not from your father
7. Statementרבי טרפון lets his mother step on him
8. RejectionNot even half of the honor
9. Statementרב יוסף stands for the שכינה
10. StatementFortunate is one who never saw his parents
11. Statementרבי יוחנן and אביי never knew their parents
12. ChallengeBut אביי often quoted his mother
13. ResolutionThat was his foster mother
14. Statementרב אסי and his elderly mother
15. QuestionMay one leave ארץ ישראל?
16. ResponseIt is forbidden
17. QuestionWhat about going to greet one's mother?
18. ResponseI do not know
19. ResponseMay ה׳ bring you back in peace
20. Questionרב אסי worries that רבי יוחנן was angry
21. Questionרבי אלעזר asks what exactly was said
22. Responseרב אסי repeats the blessing
23. ResponseA blessing shows there was no anger
24. ConclusionHis mother had died: 'Had I known, I would not have left'
25. StatementHonor a father both in life and in death
26. StatementHonor in life: speak in your father's name
27. StatementHonor in death: add words of respect when quoting him
28. StatementWithin twelve months versus after
29. StatementA חכם changes the name of his father and teacher, a תורגמן does not
30. QuestionWhose father is meant?
31. ChallengeIt cannot mean the תורגמן's own father
32. Resolutionרבא: it means the Sage's father and teacher
33. ProofThe example of מר בר רב אשי and his speaker
34. StatementWhat counts as fear and what counts as honor
35. QuestionA new question is raised