DEUT1083 Another source of the Pentateuch that shows concern for what we are calling "human dignity" is to be found in the rabbinic inference from the command [this verse]. The rabbis infer that there is a circumstance when one may "hide himself" from the obligation to chase after his neighbor's ox, and that is if he is "an elder or a scholar," because such activity would be beneath his dignity. The accepted interpretation here is that since an elder or a scholar would not suffer this indignity even if his own property were involved, he need not act differently to save another's property. (Bava Metzia 30a-30b. See Rambam, Hilkhot Gezelah ve-Avedah 18:11. The rabbis in Berakhot 19-20 ruled that considerations of Kavod ha-beriyot cannot overrule a biblical negative command but only a rabbinical ordinance or a biblical positive command).