Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Acharei Mot/Kedoshim 1- Parents vs. Shabbos
In this week parsha, Perek 19, passuk 3, it mentions that Shabbat observance supersede honoring parents, what could be a reason for this? One reason is according to OhrSamayach.com and they say it is because the parents are also commanded by Hashem to observe Shabbat. Parents deserve great honor, but not at the "expense" of Hashem's honor.
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Rashi says that from the word אִ֣ישׁ that is how we know we are talking about men, and from the word תִּירָ֔אוּ is how we know we are not only talking about men, but women too because this is in plural. The reason mother comes before father when saying we should fear both our mother and our father, is because it is normally observed that a child fears his father more, so we say mother first to emphasis that yes you should fear your mother as well. Following this, speaking of fearing your mother and father, it says that you should keep shabbat. This meaning that even if your parents discourage you or tell you not to keep shabbat in any way, you should not listen to them because Hashem is the ultimate God and you should fear Him before your parents and anyone else who tells you to violate shabbat. So we should honor our parents in every way (like not sitting in your fathers seat, or getting them food or drink, or clothes or anything by given them kavod) but ultimately both us and our parents honor Hashem so we should listen and respect our parents if it doesn’t go against the words of Hashem
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Chatam Sofer, parents and shabbos represent two opposites. Parents represent the beginning of life, whereas shabbos represents the completion of creation. Therefore, the placement of shabbos and Kivod Av Ve Em next to one another, specifically shabbos being mentioned first, indicates that the end of a process is just as important as the beginning of one.
ReplyDeleteI interpreted this through many sources on Chabad.Org, but namely the Zohar: The commandment to honor ones parents is on the right side of the luchot, and the 5th comandment. ,The right are commandments between man and G‑d, but we would think that kibud av would be between two people. It is therefore has "a foot in each world" both between man and man, and man and G‑d. Why is that? Because if one can't respect his fellow man, how could she respect god. Especially if he can't respect his parents. By having The commandment of Shabbat in the same category (vise versa) we really see the value of treating our parents with the upmost respect as a key to our life, similar to Shabbat. And while we think that Kibud av is one of the mist important commandments, its Shabbos that comes before all.
ReplyDeleteAish.com says that a reason Shabbos comes before honoring parents is because Shabbos is something that Hashem invented while creating the world and was passed down to us. We emulate Hashem by keeping Shabbos. It is really the foundation of the creation of the world and the Jewish people.
ReplyDelete-Gabrielle Posner
Rav Binyamin Zimmerman writes about this question and concludes that We know that parents hold an extra special position for us and it is stated int the torah that it is so. However, this shows that although our parents should be honored and placed on somewhat of a pedestal they do not come close to Hashems position or role. Rav Hirsch explains why shabbat was the mitzvah chosen to help us recognize and remember that. He says that both of these mitzvot expose and teach Jews about what it means to be "holy". Parents bring their child intot he physical world and then help them grow spiritually and reach their mission as a Jew.
ReplyDeleteRashi explains that the mitzvot go honoring ones parents and keeping shabbos are next to each other is to teach us that if one's father or mother told him to desecrate the shabbos or to violate any other mitzvah, he is not to obey them.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Rabbi. Shrieber, the reason why we weigh shobbas more than honoring our parents is because we can easily forgot the significance of shobbas. Fortunately, most of us have parents who we live with and are in constant contact with. Although shobbas comes every week, it easy to forgot the importance of shobbas and why we have it. Every time we see our parents we are reminded of the fact that it is necessary to give them proper respect and admiration, shobbas however is just another part of our schedule. This Pasuk reminds us that although shobbas is routine, we must give it the proper respect it deserves.
ReplyDeleteSforno talks about what exactly Shabbat means. He says that it includes doing a number mitzvot that prove that Hashem is the one behind all creation. Through doing these mitzvot the Jewish people will understand that Hashem is able to command so much from us because he has created the world itself that we live in. After reading this I came up with my own explanation based on the sfornos words. Shabbat represents Hashem as a creator and so this has to be put even above respecting your parents because going against Shabbat is like going against the world you live in as a whole. While parents give us much, you need to respect the Shabbat first in order to understand that Hashem is really the one giving you all these things.
ReplyDeleteThe Berditcheva Rebbe, Rav Levi Yitzchak, says that the reason observing shabbos supersedes honoring ones parents is that the human mind needs to reach the highest level of knowledge and fear, which is shabbos. In order for us to have fear, we have to have a certain understanding of the object of our fear, which also applies to awe, the higher form of fear. A person can only fear HaShem to the extent that he has some understanding of His greatness and powers. We know our vulnerability and we are afraid, yet awed. This kind of knowledge is known as av v'eim, the father and mother. A person achieves fear of HaShem through his mother and father, and by contemplating the power of HaShem, he can achieve the highest levels of fear. This will lead him to rise to the next level of knowledge of the divine that is Shabbos. Even though one achieves fear of HaShem through his parents, Shabbos is on such a high level of knowledge and fear, so it supersedes honoring ones parents.
ReplyDeletechevrahlomdeimishnah.org quotes Eruvin 13b that says that it would have been preferable had man never been created. Tosfot comments on this saying that the gemara is only referring to average people- righteous people are different. chevrahlomdeimishnah.org continues by quoting the chatam sofer who says that keeping Shabbos is what makes you righteous. Given that information, we see the importance of Shabbos and why it supersedes kibbud av v'am.
ReplyDeletehashem created shabbas on the 7th day of creation as opposed to the mitzvah of honoring your parents which came much later and because hashem created shabbas as one of the first things it is obviously so much more important then a different mitzvah such as honoring parents
ReplyDeletesource: aish.com
we learned in Jewish philosophy this year that god is forever throughout time. It's possible that shobbas is more important than honoring parents because the 7th day god rested and god is our father, our everything. Despite our parents being are everything god is forever and unfortunately our parents aren't (they hopefully are in memory but you know what I mean).
ReplyDeleteAish.com says that the reason Shabbos comes before kibud av viaim is because Shabbos is something that Hashem created and it was given to us. We emulate Hashem by keeping Shabbos. Its the foundation of the creation of the world and the Jewish people.
ReplyDelete