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RSRH writes the following in his commentary on Shemos <b>20:
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4>12
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Honor your father and your
mother, so that your days may be long on the land that
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>God</font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>, your God, is giving
you.<br><br>
</b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Y'tzias Mitzraim</i>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>and <i>Matan Torah </i>are
the two basic facts in the history of the<br>
Jewish people that form the foundation of our allegiance to God as
the<br>
Master of our fate and the Guide of our lives. These two facts are
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>historical<br>
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>truths.
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>However, the sole
guarantee of their authenticity is tradition,<br>
and tradition depends solely on its faithful transmission from parents
to<br>
children, and on its willing acceptance by children from the hands of
their<br>
parents.<br><br>
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Thus, the survival of the
great Divine institution that is Judaism<br>
rests entirely on the theoretical and practical obedience of children
to<br>
parents. Accordingly,
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Kibud Av V'Aim</i>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>is the basic condition for
the eternity of<br>
the Jewish
nation</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>.<br><br>
Through the father and the mother, God gives the child more than<br>
just his physical existence. Parents are also the link that connects
the<br>
child to the Jewish past and enables him or her to be a Jewish man<br>
or woman. From the parents the child receives the tradition of the<br>
Jewish mission, which is shaped by knowledge, a code of conduct, and<br>
upbringing. The parents transmit to the child Jewish history and
Jewish<br>
Law, so that eventually he, in turn, will pass them on to his own<br>
children. Just as he looks up to his parents, so will his own
children<br>
someday look up to him. Without this connection between parents<br>
and children, the chain of generations is broken, the hopes of the<br>
Jewish past are lost for the future, and the Jewish nation ceases to<br>
exist.<br><br>
<snip><br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Kibud</i>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>entails, first of all,
obeying one’s parents unreservedly and doing<br>
their will with alacrity. The only limitation placed on this duty is<br>
that their will should not be contradictory to God’s Will (see
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Vayikra<br>
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>19:3 and Commentary
there). For the parents are meant to be the heralds<br>
of God’s Will. This is their mission; this is what gives them their<br>
great importance.<br><br>
It is this mission of the parents — not the amount of kindness,<br>
large or small, they have shown their children — that lies at the
root<br>
of the mitzvah of </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Kibud Av
V'Aim,</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> a mitzvah that
increases with the age and<br>
maturity of the children and extends even beyond the death of the<br>
parents. The unconditional and imposing demands of this mitzvah
transcend<br>
by far any moral obligation that ordinary morality — the so-called<br>
morality of reason — could deduce from considerations of gratitude<br>
(see </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Kiddushin
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>30b, 31, 32).<br><br>
This selection is taken from pages 347 - 348 of the new translation of
Rav Hirsch's commentary on the Chumash Shemos.<br>
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Yitzchok Levine</font></body>
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