The Talmud (Kiddushin 31a-b) collects multiple stories about the extraordinary respect Dama ben Netina showed his father, but it also records stories of Jewish sages who went to remarkable lengths to honor their own parents.
Rabbi Tarfon's devotion to his mother was legendary. Whenever she needed to climb into bed, he would bend down and let her step on his back. Whenever she needed to descend, she would step on him again. He was her living staircase — one of the greatest sages in Israel, using his own body as furniture for his mother's comfort.
When he boasted about this to the other sages in the study house, they were unimpressed. "You have not yet reached half the honor due to a parent," they told him. "Has she ever thrown your purse into the sea in front of you, and you did not embarrass her?" The standard was not merely to serve a parent but to endure anything from a parent without resentment — even irrational, destructive behavior.
Rabbi Yosef, when he heard his mother's footsteps approaching, would say: "Let me stand before the Divine Presence that is coming." He treated her arrival as if the Shekhinah (the Divine Presence) itself were entering the room.
These stories establish a principle that goes far beyond ordinary respect. Honoring parents, the sages taught, is equated with honoring God Himself. The fifth commandment sits at the boundary between the commandments governing the relationship between humans and God and those governing relationships between humans. It belongs to both categories — because in honoring your parents, you honor the One who created you through them.