If somebody learns from another person a chapter or a law or a pasuk (verse) or a statement or even a single letter of Torah, you must treat that person with honor. We see the same thing with David, who was the king of the Jewish people. He learned only two things from Achitophel. Achitophel was an advisor of David HaMelech (the king of the Jewish people), but when Avshalom, who was the son of David HaMelech, rebelled against his father, Achitophel joined him. Achitophel even had a plan to kill David HaMelech himself. The Gemara does tell us that Achitophel lost his share in the world to come, but when he was David’s advisor before the rebellion, he corrected David HaMelech on two things, on two points of improper behavior.
Firstly, he saw that David HaMelech was studying Torah alone. He wasn’t studying with a chavruta (study partner), and Achitophel corrected him. He told him that he needed a study partner because if he made a mistake, that person would correct him, as opposed to studying alone, when nobody was going to correct him. Another time, he saw David HaMelech walking into the Beit Midrash (study hall) with his head held high, and he told him, “You have to enter the Beit Midrash with asura. In awe, reverence and respect.” And David HaMelech, even though he only learned these two things and this person ended up rebelling against him, called him his teacher, his mentor and his advisor: “You are a man of my worth, my mentor and my advisor.”
So we see David HaMelech, when he’s praying for the rebellion of Avshalom in Ahitophel at the fall, still calls Achitophel a man of my worth, my mentor and my advisor. So he’s calling him a man of my worth. He says the word that means to tell us that Achitophel was an important person, as important as the king of Israel. How much more so? A logical argument: If a certain point applies in a lesser case, how much more so should it apply in a more relevant case? And what David said to the king of Israel—that he didn’t learn from Achitophel, but other things.
David, who was the king of Israel, learned only two things from Achitophel. He called him his teacher, his mentor and his advisor. If somebody learns from another person even a perek (chapter) or a law or a pasuk or a statement or even a single letter, how much more so would he have to treat him with honor? David HaMelech learned two Halachot (laws) from Achitophel, who was a person we call wicked, and he still treated him with respect and gave him honor by the fact that he taught him those two laws. How much more so an ordinary person who learns Torah from somebody else who is not wicked? How much honor does he have to show him?
Honor is due only to a person because of his involvement with Torah, like the pasuk tells us: honor is due to those who are wise and the perfect ones who inherit good. The word tov, and that word, the only type of good that we usually mean is Torah. The word good means Torah, like the pasuk tells us as well. The pasuk says, “I have given you the good teaching; don’t forsake my Torah.” So we see from here that the word good is talking about Torah. So originally, when we said, “U'temimim yinchalu tov,” the perfect ones who inherit good, that means honor should be given to those people who are wise because they perfected themselves by inheriting the Torah and making the Torah something that they’ve acquired.