LEV299 The Rabbis taught: What is "fear"? Not to stand in his place, not to sit in his place, not to contradict his words, and not to override his words (Kiddushin 31a)

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LEV300 Clearly, it is best to honor one's parents out of love and to love them while fulfilling the duties of honoring them, but that is not always how a child feels. The law demands honor and respect of parents, but, at least according to Maimonides, it does not demand love of them. It does, however, require not only honor and reverence for God but also love of God, even when, as in the case of the biblical Job, one feels anything but love. There is another way in which honor and respect for God supersedes that for parents, and that is derived from the juxtaposition of the commands to revere one's parents and to keep My Sabbaths [this verse]. The Rabbis read the "and" of this verse such that the second clause is a condition for the first: "You shall each revere his mother and his father and [that is, on condition that or as long as] you keep My Sabbaths." ... Based on this general principle, Rabbi Asher ben Yehiel [the Rosh, d. 1327, Germany and Spain) ruled that a man should disregard his father's insistence that he not make peace with an enemy, because "the father who commanded his son to hate a man does not have the right to command him to violate the Torah." The Torah commands, after all, "You shall not hate your brother in your heart," and the Rabbis derived from the verse in Psalms, "Seek peace and pursue it" that we actively must try to make peace with our enemies. (Responsa Rosh (1881), 15:5, cited in Herring (1984), 208. The verses cited are Leviticus 19:17 and Psalms 34:15, the latter of which the Rabbis understood to be a positive command to seek peace; see J. Pe'ah 1:1). Despite parental objections to a particular school, most scholars permit an adult son to study Torah where he wishes, even though the parents do not object to his studying Torah altogether (See, for example, Rabbi Israel Isserlien (1390-1460), Responsa Trumat ha-Deshen, no. 40 and S.A. Yoreh De'ah 240:25); and most permit a son or daughter to immigrate to Israel over parental objections so as to fulfill the commitment to live there [lengthy footnote omitted].

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LEV301 … the basic ethical tradition of Judaism [is] the sacredness of each individual human being. Humans, formed in God's image, possess the divine spirit and are the crown of God's creation. In Judaism, it is this concept of the human being, created in the image of God, which forms the foundation of Jewish ethics. Indeed, whenever something is left to a person's conscience, the Bible adds, "You shall Revere God," or "I am God." For example, [this verse] states that every person shall fear his or her mother and father and keep God's Sabbaths: "I am God." Other examples are found in Leviticus 19:10-11, 14, 16, 18, 34, and 37: leaving a corner of one's field for the poor; laws prohibiting stealing, lying, and profaning God's name; and being a talebearer or hating one's neighbor. Each of these laws is followed by the phrase "I am God." Thus, the foundation of biblical ethics includes the belief that every human being is created in the image of God and is therefore entitled to respect and courtesy. In the Bible, the root tzedek, meaning righteousness, occurs more than 500 times, including all of its inflections. Doing what is right and just is the essence of biblical ethics. The person who refrains from wrongdoing and makes an effort to establish what is right is called righteous. For the rabbis, too, the ethical ideal was the tzaddik -- the righteous and good person. According to the Talmud (Yoma 38b), one righteous person can ensure the very existence of the world itself.

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LEV302 See [[EXOD520]] Exodus 21:1 them LEHRMAN 237-8

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LEV303 The Rabbis taught: Whence is it derived that if one's father told him: Become unclean [in the event of his becoming a priest] or: Do not return a lost object -- Whence is it derived that the son is not to heed the father? From: "A man, his mother and his father, you shall fear, and My Sabbaths you shall keep" -- you are all obligated to honor Me (Bava Metzia 32a)

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LEV304 …the Torah specifically mentions that mothers as well as fathers are to be revered and honored, and the Rabbis construed these commands to be demanded of daughters as well as sons. (For the biblical command to honor parents, see Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:16. For the command to respect parents, see Leviticus 19:3. That daughters as well as sons are commanded to honor and respect their parents, see M. Kiddushin 1:7 and B. Kiddushin 29a).

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LEV308 Honor of parents is essential to their assigned task of transmitting religious and cultural values to succeeding generations. Instruction of one's children is the only parental duty mentioned in the Bible (Deuteronomy 6:7). Children who are respectful of their parents will readily accept their guidance and instructions. The biblical command "You shall fear every man his father and his mother" is concluded with the statement "I am the Lord your God" [this verse], i.e., parents whose children fear them are able to implant reference for God in the hearts of their children. The verse following this command warns against the worship of idols. The link between parental honor and the preservation of the faith is thus clearly implied. This connection is explicitly emphasized in the Book of Proverbs: "The fear of Lord is the beginning of knowledge. … Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father and forsake not the teaching of thy mother" (Proverbs 1:7–8). It may be added parenthetically that parental honor solidifies family bonds. The survival of Jewish society as a religious and cultural community rests upon the foundation of stable family units.

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LEV311 See [[EXOD410]] Exodus 20:12 honor DORFFLOV 57

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LEV312 See [[EXOD424]] Exodus 20:12 honor DUTIES 233

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LEV310 See [[DEUT1499]] Deuteronomy 27:16 shames GATES 191

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