Rabbi
Tarfon had an elderly mother whom he treated with such respect that
whenever she wanted to climb into bed, he would bend down and she would
climb on him into it; and whenever she descended, she would descend on
him to reach the floor.
Rabbi Tarfon came and lauded his own
performance of the mitzvah to his colleagues in the study hall. They
told him: You have not yet reached half of the honor one can bestow
upon his parents. Has your mother ever thrown a bag of money into the
sea in your presence and you did not shame her?
