Shabbat Parashat Acharei-Mot/Kedoshim - 5781

Shabbat Parashat Acharei-Mot/Kedoshim - 5781

Rabbi Hal Miller

Every man shall revere his mother and his father and you shall observe

My Sabbaths, I am Hashem your God. [Vayikra 19:3]

Why does our verse tie reverence for parents to observance of the Shabbat? The

Torah repeats the commandment to observe Shabbat in many places, so what

purpose does it serve here?

Rashi gives the classic answer. "Although I enjoined you about revering a father, if

he should say to you, desecrate the Shabbat, do not listen to him. And so too with

regard to other commandments. I am Hashem your God. You and your father are

obligated in My honor, therefore do not listen to him to cancel My words." At first

glance, this seems to resolve our question, but others take it deeper to find

additional meanings. For example, Smag and Tur write that there is no obligation to

honor parents if they are wicked. If so, why does the Torah need to juxtapose

observing Shabbat to honoring parents? If they told him to desecrate Shabbat,

they would fall into the category of wicked and there would be no mitzvah to listen

to them. Talelei Oros brings the Chida who gives the situation where the son takes

in an early Shabbat, but the father, without knowing this, asks the son to do some

act prohibited on Shabbat. Since it is still permitted to the father, we cannot call him

wicked, thus our verse tells the son to observe Shabbat anyway.

Kol Dodi sees an interesting tie. Parents brought us into the world so we owe them

honor. But God was also a partner in that, so we owe Him honor right alongside the

parents. The Torah is defining in our verse how we render that honor to God.

Rav Hirsch gives us two answers. First, fear of parents and observance of Shabbat

are the two keys to living a Jewish life. Second, it is natural for a child to have

fear of his parents, so our verse is a step from there to reverence for God.

The Gemora [Kiddushin 31b] describes two types of honor, kavod (respect) and mora

(reverence). Kavod is the physical care that a child gives an aging parent. Mora is

acting in a reverent way such as not sitting in the parent's chair. It then defines mora

as applying solely to God, saying that reverence for a person is blasphemous. How

do we reconcile this? Yevamot [6b] says, "One may not revere the Sanctuary, rather

He who commanded us regarding it." Thus showing this kind of honor to our parent

is actually showing that reverence to God. Our verse is telling us to revere God, with

one way of doing that being to honor our parents.