From Mr D’s Notes on Teaching..

Joseph Caro (1488-1575) a Jewish writer once mentioned some of the actions a young man should take when in the presence of a teacher.

1. He held that the student was to honor his teacher above his parents.
2. He likened anyone striving or complaining with/to his teacher to striving or complaining with/to the Lord.
3. A scholar was not allowed to answer a point of law if his teacher was present. To do so without permission was open to punishment.
4. The student was never, even after death, to call his teacher by his first name.
5. The student was never allowed to sit in the teachers seat.
6. When a teacher died the student was to tear his coat as if his father had died.
7. Basically the teacher in many ways was to be held as superior to one’s own father.
8. The teacher however was also to honor the scholar as the scholar was to honor the teacher.

Tearing one’s coat is contrary to the sunna… but it is amazing to reflect–yet again–how tradition values have so much in common across the great religions.