Honoring Parents

A brief treatise on the significance of the mitzvah of honoring one’s parents.

What constitutes fear? One must not stand in the place appointed for his father, in a council of elders or the place reserved for him to pray. One must not sit in the seat generally occupied by his father. One must not contradict his father's words nor co...

The preceding paragraphs define what it means to render honor and reverence to parents. The underlying thought of these precepts, the reason for the proper behavior towards parents as enjoined by the Torah, is generally regarded as rational and self-evide...

However, the fact that the Torah declares the proper child-to-parent relationship to be a Divine precept lends it a new character. [Note the expression of Deut. 5:16: "Honor your father and your mother as the L-rd your G-d has commanded you." Cf. Hamek Da...

An implicit allusion to the deeper significance of the command to "honor your father and your mother" is detected in the very context in which this command appears. It appears as one of the Ten Commandments. Moreover, within the Decalogue itself it is par...

The analogous relationship between honoring G-d and honoring parents is expressed more explicitly in the Rabbinic writings. The sages note that these principles (of honoring and revering G-d, and of honoring and revering parents) are hermeneutically equat...

Above we cited the legal definitions and explained what it means to honor and revere parents. The Talmud offers some enlightening illustrations taken from actual life to teach the extent of these Mitzvos. Interestingly enough, the oft-cited model-son is a...

What constitutes honor? One must provide them with food and drink, clothing and garments, to conduct them home and take them out, and rise before them. And one must provide them with all their needs cheerfully: even if one should feed them daily the most ...

Behold, I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of the L‑rd, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers.Malachi 3:23–24. Nearly every day of his life ...

There is but one important qualification.The fact that the precepts to honor and revere parents are commands of G-d implies not only the wide extent and significance of these Mitzvos, but also their limitation. It is G-d Who prescribes these Mitzvos, and ...