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The following is from part of RSRH's commentary on Shemos 20:
12<br><br>
12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long on
the land that God, your God, is giving you.<br><br>
God based Jewish beliefs and convictions, and our acknowledgment<br>
of Him as Master of our fate and Director of our actions, not on the<br>
results of our research into nature, but on the historical experiences
of<br>
our people, by which God revealed Himself to us and revealed to us<br>
His Will. Heaven and earth had spoken in vain to mankind; what is<br>
worse, their pronouncements were twisted into polytheistic
conceptions.<br>
Only the revelations of God in the history of the Jewish people
restored<br>
to man’s mind the monotheistic idea, enabling him to understand the<br>
workings of nature and history on a monotheistic basis.<br><br>
<i>Yetzias Mitzraim </i> 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
historical<br>
truths. 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>
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, <i>K'bud Av V'Am</i> <i>is the basic condition for
the eternity of<br>
the Jewish nation.<br><br>
</i>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>
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