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<p>The following is from pat RSRH's commentary on </p>
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<span class="co_VerseText">You shall neither prostrate yourself before them nor worship them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a zealous God, Who visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons, upon the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me,</span>
<span class="co_VerseNum">ה</span><span class="co_VerseText">לֹא תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה לָהֶם וְלֹא תָעָבְדֵם כִּי אָנֹכִי יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֵל קַנָּא פֹּקֵד עֲוֹן אָבוֹת עַל בָּנִים עַל שִׁלֵּשִׁים וְעַל רִבֵּעִים לְשׂנְאָי:</span><br>
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Perhaps the meaning is that God carries over the sins of parents to<br>
children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren; He makes them responsible<br>
for atoning for the sins of the parents. Instead of quickly destroying the parents<br>
because of their sins, God waits until the fourth generation: perhaps<br>
grandchildren or great-grandchildren will return and rectify the deeds<br>
of the parents. Only then, if there is no betterment, does He allow the<br>
generation to perish in their continued guilt.<br>
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Whatever may be the true nature of this Divine attribute, two fundamental<br>
truths emerge from it for our most earnest reflection:<br>
The one and only God wants us to accept upon ourselves the yoke<br>
of His rule over all our actions and to recognize Him as the Lawgiver<br>
for our whole lives, and it is He Who grants us life and sustains us for<br>
the fulfillment of His Law. It is in our power to build up our lives or<br>
to ruin them, all according to the measure of our adherence to, or<br>
defiance of, His Law. God lives and endures, and He judges a person<br>
according to his deeds. There is no escape from His judgment.<br>
Furthermore, the weal or woe of the children depends on the parents<br>
— all according to the measure of their virtue or vice. Children are<br>
fruit growing on the tree of the life and fate of the parents. For the sake<br>
of our children we should preserve our health; for the sake of our<br>
children we should act morally and charitably; for the sake of our children<br>
we should be spiritually vigilant and valiant.<br>
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Just as it is certain that God sends each child into this world with a<br>
perfectly pure soul, it also is certain that parents bequeath to the physical<br>
nature of their child their flawed propensities, weaknesses and defects.<br>
These present the child with a formidable task, and to overcome them the<br>
pure soul of the child must test and prove its godlike power. The parents’<br>
sins line the cradle of their infant with unhappiness, sickness, and the example<br>
of moral degeneration, and the little citizen of the world is destined<br>
to climb a hard steep path of trials until he prevails in the moral test.<br>
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