[Avodah] Revering Mother and Father

[Yitzchok Levine]

The following are selections from RSRH's commentary on Vayikra 19

3 You must each revere his mother and his father, 
and keep My Sabbaths; I am God, your God.

Revering mother and father and sanctifying Shabbos
educate the Jew to the holiness of life — from the day he is born
to the day he dies. Yiras Em v'Av is the first step toward Kedusha.

The essence of Yirah is obedience: subordinating one’s will to the
will of the one to whom Yirah is directed.

In our Commentary on the mitzvah of Kibud Av v'Em in the Ten Commandments
(Shemos 20:12) we analyzed the significance of parents, the
significance that gives them their prominent place in the Torah. Parents
convey to their children not only physical existence, but also the Jewish
mission. They transmit to the next generation Jewish history and Torah
from Heaven’s hand. Hence, it is not the good that parents do for their
children, but the mission given to the parents concerning their children
that is the basis of the mitzvah of Kibud Av v'Em. He who honors his father
and his mother honors God and His revelation in history and in the
Torah.

Here, in the chapter on Kedusha, the duty to obey parents is emphasized.
Subordination of the child’s will to the parents’ will, nullification
of the child’s will because of his parents’ will, is the first training toward
self-control. Self-control will release the young person from the fetters
of his baser instincts and give him mastery over the impulses of his
will; it will free the Divine forces in man and lead him to moral freedom.
This constitutes the whole essence of the character of the Kadosh.

Here, Scripture does not say terah and teshmor, in the singular — as
in the Ten Commandments — but teraoo and teshmaroo. Not only individuals
are to fulfill these two fundamentals of Jewish morality; rather, Kibud Av V'Em
and Shabbos are to leave their imprint on the whole Jewish national
character. Because of them, God becomes our God; through them, our
homage to God is made manifest. They are the two pillars of the holiness
of Jewish life. As long as these pillars are in place, there is a basis for
our very relationship to God — and God says of 
us: Ani Hashem Elokechem. Experience,
too, teaches us that when one of these two pillars falls, the
other falls also. 
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