ON THE PARSHA

	Parshas KEDOSHIM (VaYikra 19 & 20)

	by Dovid Lipman

NOTE: The old styles are being temporarily
abandoned due to conatrints on typing time.

GRATITUDE

(19:3) "Everyone must respect their mother and father,
and keep my Shabbos; I am Hashem your G-d.

Rashi brings the gemara which explains: though you must
respect parents, keeping Shabbos is more important, so
do not obey a command from them to break Shabbos.

The idea is that the laws of human relationships are
dependent on the laws of relating to Hashem, since the
relationship with Hashem is what makes the laws between
people meaningful. (Therefore, once Moshe had to break
the tablet containing "You shall have no other gods...",
he had to break the other tablet, because it contained
only laws between man and man.)

Why are these mitzvos chosen to teach this lesson?
Because respecting parents is the basic human ethic of
gratitude: Recognize the people to whom you owe your
very life, not to mention that most parents invest
almost unspeakable effort in raising their children.

The Torah says that even here the loyalty to Hashem
is higher; "I am Hashem, to whom you AND your parents
AND the entire world owe the ability to exist, along
with all the abilities any of you have, constantly."
And the prototype mitzvah for acknowledging this debt
is Shabbos, which recalls the Creation. So how can
one respect a parent, but break Shabbos?