In 1964, Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson, two young astronomers, stumbled on the origins of the universe completely by accident. Sitting at their desks at Bell Labs, New Jersey,...
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Daily Reading
In 1964, Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson, two young astronomers, stumbled on the origins of the universe completely by accident. Sitting at their desks at Bell Labs, New Jersey,...
Read MoreDaily Sources
Honor your father and your mother, that you may long endure on the land that Hashem, your God is assigning to you.
– Exodus 20:12
And he should take to heart that the father and the mother are the cause of his being in the world; and hence it is truly fitting to honor them in every way and give every benefit he can to them, because they brought him to the world, and worked hard for him when he was little. And once he fixes this idea in his soul, he will move up from it to recognize the good of God, Blessed be He, who is his cause and the cause of all his ancestors until the first man (Adam).
– Sefer HaChinukh 33:2
As a father is merciful to his children, so the Hashem is merciful to those who fear Him.
– Psalms 103:13
And on the day that I am preparing, said Hashem, they shall be My treasured possession; I will be tender toward them as a man is tender toward a son who ministers to him.
– Malachi 3:17
The Torah speaks according to the language of the sons of man.
– Berakhot 31b:13
Whenever any one of His actions is perceived by us, we ascribe to God that emotion which is the source of the act when performed by ourselves, and call Him by an epithet which is formed from the verb expressing that emotion… similar acts, when performed by us, are due to a certain emotion and tenderness called mercy and pity. God is, therefore, said to be merciful… Such instances do not imply that God is influenced by a feeling of mercy, but that acts similar to those which a father performs for his son, out of pity, mercy and real affection…
– Guide for the Perplexed, Part 1 54:3
Daily Quotes
“Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.”
– Plato
“You have to respect your parents. They are giving you an at-bat…patience is important. But respect the other party… My dad and I pulled it off because we really respect each other.”
– Gary Vaynerchuk
“God made and governs the world invisibly, and has commanded us to love and worship him and no other God; to honor our parents and masters, and love our neighbors as ourselves; and to be temperate, just, and peaceable, and to be merciful even to brute beasts.”
– Isaac Newton
Daily Goals
Honoring one’s parents is one of the Ten Commandments. According to Judaism, parents are to be respected because they are the source of our tradition. In other words, parents not only gave us life in this world, but are the link that connects us to our eternal Jewish heritage.
The commentators point out that the first five of the Ten Commandments contains mitzvot between man and God, (don’t serve idols, don’t take God’s name in vain, etc.), whereas the second tablet contains mitzvot between man and man, (don’t murder, don’t steal, etc.)
Where is the mitzvah to honor one’s parents? One would think it would be included in the second set of commandments, the laws that govern interpersonal relationships. But, we see that it is actually in the first five. Because the relationship between parents and children serves as a springboard for how we should feel toward God.
From the moment of infancy and beyond, the way a parent acts toward a child forms in the child’s consciousness a paradigm for how God relates to us. The primary role of a parent, therefore, is to communicate to the child: “You are loved and cherished. You are unique and special, creative and talented. You are cared for and protected.”
The most important message a parent can communicate is: “You are not alone in this world.” This idea is the foundation of our relationship with God. A person may find themselves in a terrible situation – illness, poverty, war – but they can still know that God is with them.
“And you should know in your heart that just as a father punishes his son, God punishes you.”
In this short sentence the Torah is teaching us the most basic tenet of trust in God. Just as a father only punishes a son because of his love for him and for his ultimate benefit, so too any punishments that God sends to us also emanate from His great love for us and is only for our good. When a person finds himself in a painful or challenging situation he should realize that it is ultimately for the good.
Daily Videos
There is a famous quote from the movie Groundhog Day that I always recall during the month of Elul. “What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same and nothing that you did mattered?” Elul provides us with the opportunity to move forward with our lives, to free us from the repetitive nature of the ordinary and strive to make the coming year a better and more improved one than the last.
There is a famous quote from the movie Groundhog Day that I always recall during the month of Elul. “What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same and nothing that you did mattered?” Elul provides us with the opportunity to move forward with our lives, to free us from the repetitive nature of the ordinary and strive to make the coming year a better and more improved one than the last.
