EXOD672 When Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah was about to die, his disciples sat before him, and asked, "Rabbeinu [our teacher], teach us only one thing" (i.e., one fundamental final teaching). "He replied, 'My children, what can I teach you? Every one of you go and be very careful of the dignity of others'" Derech Eretz Rabbah, chapter 3. Preserving the dignity of orphans, and protecting them from hurt, is a deeply embedded Jewish value: for example [this and following verses]. Maimonides, in a twelfth-century form of affirmative action, rules that a teacher who has orphans among his students "should not treat them like others, but make a distinction in their favor. He should guide them gently, with the utmost of tenderness and courtesy." Laws of Character Development 6:10.