Shabbat Parashat Kedoshim - 5784

Shabbat Parashat Kedoshim - 5784

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]

There are a series of commands in our parsha where two, or occasionally three subjects

are tied, seemingly unrelated. In our verse, for example, what is the tie between revering

parents and observing Shabbat?

According to Rashi and many others, following Torat Kohanim, the second part of our verse

is a limitation upon the first part. God commanded that we honor parents, but should they

direct us to desecrate Shabbat, we are to ignore them and follow the laws of Shabbat

anyway. Rashi adds that this applies to the other commandments as well and that the Torah

is here saying that any violated commandment would be treated as seriously as a desecration

of Shabbat.

Malbim notes that the commandment of Shabbat is written many times, so its coming here is

not for itself, rather to show the importance of the command it is linked to, revering parents.

Rashbam says more or less the same thing, "honoring parents is almost on a par with

honoring the Creator Himself". Sforno expands this idea, that it does not only apply to the

Shabbat of Creation, but also to other Shabbats such as shemittah for the land and for loans.

Kol Dodi understands the connection that since one's parents brought him into the world, he

owes them reverence, and since God was a third partner in that bringing into the world, he

owes reverence to God as well, which is demonstrated through observance of Shabbat.

Rav Hirsch sees it as a progression of sanctification. We first learn fear of parents, then

reverence of them. This leads toward our ultimate goal of sanctifying all of God's laws and

creation, culminating with observance of Shabbat as representative of all the commandments

of the Torah.