Daf 23b - Why does one who loves Torah scholars merit sons who are also Torah scholars?
On Daf 23b Rava taught that one who loves Torah scholars will have sons who are Torah scholars, and one who honours Torah scholars will have sons-in-law who are Torah scholars.
But Rava also taught in the gemora Bava Basra 110a that one who intends to marry a women should first check out her brothers, because, as the Baraissa teaches, most of the sons will be similar to the brothers of the mother. If so, how will the merit of loving Torah scholars help him if his wife does not have brothers who are Torah scholars?
We cannot answer that it is precisely for this very situation that this merit helps, that even one whose wife does not have brothers who are Torah scholars will have sons who are Torah scholars because of his love for such scholars, because if so, why did the Baraissa teach unconditionally that most of the sons will be similar to the brothers of the mother, and not specify that this rule does not apply if the father is one who loves Torah scholars!
But we can answer that if one loves Torah scholars his wife will certainly have brothers who are Torah scholars. Because in the gemora Pesachim 49b R. Akiva stated: When I was an ignoramus I used to say give me a Torah scholar and I will bite him like a donkey. From this teaching of R. Akiva we see that an ignoramus hates Torah scholars, and so conversely one who loves Torah scholars must himself be a Torah scholar.
Now, one who honours Torah scholars surely also loves them, since his honouring them stems from his love for them. But it does not follow automatically that one who loves Torah scholars will also honour them. If so, why does the one who loves Torah scholars receive the greater reward of having sons who are Torah scholars, because a person surely desires this more than having sons-in-law who are Torah scholars! Perforce we must explain that the gemora means that one who loves Torah scholars will only have sons who are Torah scholars, but the one who honours Torah scholars will also have son-in-law who are Torah scholars.
Thus it emerges that one who loves Torah scholars his wife will certainly have brothers who are Torah scholars. Because if he loves Torah scholars he must himself be a Torah scholar, and since his father-in-law merited to have a son-in-law who is a Torah scholar it must be because his father-in-law honours Torah scholars, and thus he must have also merited to have sons who are Torah scholars!