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LEVITICUS — 19:3 revere

LEV307 For the mystics, the essence of the person is the soul, though the person is a composite of body and soul.  The human parents create the body of the child, while God creates the essence, the soul of the child.  Therefore, God is the primary parent, the essential parent, the ultimate, parent, the parent of all parents.  In this view, honoring the parent is considered a commandment applicable primarily to God, and only by extension to the human parent.  Niddah 31a; Zohar 1:49, 3:219b. See also Nahmanides on Exodus 20:12.  For this reason, when there is a conflict between obeying one’s human parent and obeying God’s commandments, one is obliged to observe the divine commandment and to ignore the commandment of the human parent.  Sifra on Leviticus 19:3 HTBAJ 166

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LEVITICUS — 19:3 revere

LEV305 Both Mother and Father Should Be Treated Equally with Respect: "Honor your father and your mother." I might have understood that because the word "father" proceeds in the text, he should actually take precedence over the mother. But in another passage it states, "You shall each revere his mother and his father" [this verse]; the mother precedes. Scripture thus declares that both are equal [Mechilta of Rabbi Ishmael, Pisha, Chapter 1].

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LEVITICUS — 19:3 revere

LEV306 Concerning the duty to parents, it is said: "You shall fear every man his mother and his father" [this verse]; and concerning duty to God, it is said: "You shall fear God" [Deuteronomy 6:13]. We are thus enjoined to honor and revere them in the manner that we are enjoined to honor and revere God's great name. (Mishneh Torah, Book of Judges, Mamrim, Chapter 6:1).

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LEVITICUS — 19:3 revere

LEV309 It adds up, then, to reverence and awe, with a touch of fear perhaps to ensure against lapsing. There is an old saying: Familiarity breeds contempt (Aesop, The Fox and the Lion (fl. 550 BCE)). This is what mora, yir'ah would prevent and counteract. The Divinity, our parents, and our teachers of Torah share a common, continuing role: they grant us life, growth and development, physically and spiritually, so that we can realize our potentialities and fulfill our destiny toward life in the Hereafter. Therefore we owe them reverence, veneration all our life. Similarly, there should be reverence, respect, and affection for our rabbi, not a fear that would keep us from the synagogue or his classes and meetings. With our reverence, we should seek to be close to our Father in Heaven and to our teachers and rabbis. We should find gratification in the company of a good Torah educator and spiritual leader; it pays to visit such a person in his home, to learn from him and to emulate his ways. Let the "fear" of your teacher, says our text, be of the same kind as your "fear" of Heaven: in both instances let it bring you to devotion and faith.

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LEVITICUS — 19:9 gleanings

LEV316 The Bible and later Judaism understand th[e] fundamental, divine value of each person and related values to require support to meet the needs of the poor. The Torah mandates practices in the context of a farming community. The corners of one's fields, cleanings, and forgotten produce are to be left for the poor to take, in addition to a tithe for support of the needy [this and following verse]. Rabbinic Judaism developed the Hebrew Bible's value of justice (tzedek) and institutions for support of the needy into tzedakah. That which is to be given to the poor never simply belonged to the giver, but was God's, and was owed to the needy as their right. Codifying traditions that go back to the Talmud and beyond, the Shulhan Arukh, the authoritative 16th century code of Jewish law, states that "each individual is obligated to give to the poor.… If one gives less than is appropriate, the courts may administer lashes until he gives according to the assessment, and the courts may go to his property in his presence and take the amount that it is appropriate to give." S.A. Yoreh De'ah 248:1 (Continued at [[DEUT743]] Deuteronomy 15:8 needy OXFORD 346). (By Aaron L. Mackler, "Jewish Bioethics: The Distribution of Health Care")

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LEVITICUS — 19:9 harvest

LEV317 The poor have the right to participate in the Jewish farmer’s harvest: the Jewish poor in accordance with the Torah and the Gentile poor mip’nei darkei shalom (for the sake of peace). (It is obviously not feasible to grant by right all the poor of the world a share in the bounty of such a small entity as the Jewish farming community.) Although at first glance the effect of these gifts on the poor of a modern nonagrarian society seems to be severely limited, this is not really so. Even today, even in industrialized societies, the specter of hunger is such that mitigating it in this form would seem to retain some importance. More importantly, perhaps, the influence of the ideology underlying these gifts in shaping the attitudes of Jews toward wealth and responsibility for each other's welfare inherent therein is as great today as ever. Similarly, the institution of gifts to the poor is based on principles that are relevant to many of the issues confronting the modern welfare state. It is this relevance, both to the concept of wealth and to the perfection of the welfare system, which, we suggest, is as important as an analysis of the role of the gifts themselves. Logically, the gifts enumerated [in this and related verses] are applicable, in one form or another, to the Jewish farmer today.

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