Honor Your Parents: the Fulcrum of the Ten Commandments
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Honor Your Parents: The Fulcrum of the Ten Commandments here is little doubt thatkibbud av va-eim is a central mitzvah; it is not merely “another Rabbi Michael Rosensweig Tcommandment,” but an imperative Rosh Yeshiva and Rosh Kollel, RIETS vital to the enterprise of Torah and mitzvot. The Rambam Mamrim( Compiled by Rabbi Itamar Rosensweig 6:1) characterizes it as a “mitzvat Bella and Harry Wexner Fellow, RIETS, and Resident aseh gedolah” — a great positive Scholar, Cong. Ahavath Torah, Englewood, NJ commandment; the Yerusalmi (Pe’ah 1:1) declares it “chamurah shebichamuros;” — of the most serious belongs to a select class of mitzvot doubt of its axiological import. mitzvos, and the Tur (Yoreh Deah 240) 2 issued as a prequel to matan Torah. Yet when we assess kibbud av va-eim prefaces his discussion noting that At Marah, Bnei Yisrael were charged in the sugya (Talmudic discussion) of kibbud av va-eim demands a unique with a few essential commandments aseh docheh lo ta’aseh (the ability of a “punctilious observance.” that would both prepare them for and positive commandment to override What is the evidence for this afford them a glimpse of the Torah a negative commandment) — the evaluation? First, kibbud av va-eim they would later receive--sham sam lo sugya prima facie most informative appears in the most critical contexts of chok u-mishpat ve-sham ni’sahu —there of halakhic hierarchies — it emerges the Torah. It is delineated in the Aseret He established law and statute and as decidedly inferior to other Hadibrot (Shemot 20:12) — kabed there He tested it (Shemot 15:25). mitzvot, less capable of prevailing et avikha ve-et imekha, honor your Along with Shabbat, monetary laws over a competing lav (negative father and your mother — and not and parah adumah, kibbud av va-eim commandment). At one stage of just as any dibrah (commandment), preceded matan Torah. the discussion in Yevamot (6a), the but the pivotal one that transitions Third,kibbud av va-eim is one of the Gemara maintains that any aseh the dibrot from bein adam la-Makom rare instances where the imperative (positive commandment) would (between man and God) to bein adam to perform a mitzvah is buttressed prevail over a lo ta’aseh she-yeish bo la-chaveiro (between man and man).1 by the explication of its own reward: kareit (negative commandment Kibbud av va-eim later resurfaces lema’an ya’arikhun yamekha, in order with a penalty of Heavenly in Kedoshim (Vayikra 19:3) “ish that your days be lengthened. The excommunication), except for the imo ve-aviv ti’rau,” one shall fear his Gemara accordingly (Chullin 110b) aseh of kibbud av va-eim. This, the mother and father — the parshah that rules that such mitzvot lie beyond the Gemara explains, is due to an imposed Ramban (Vayikra 19:2) characterizes jurisdiction of Bet Din: kol mitzvat constraint: איש אמו ואביו תיראו ]אני ה’[ כולכם חייבים as gufei Torah (foundations of the aseh shematan secharan betzeidah, ein בכבודי. — Torah). In both of these contexts, beit din shel matah muzharin alehah kibbud av va-eim is significantly any mitzvah whose reward is written “You shall fear your mother and your conjoined with the mitzvah of in the Torah, Bet Din cannot enforce. father [I am God]” All of you are Shabbat. Given the prominence accorded obligated to honor Me. Second, according to Rashi (Devarim to kibbud av va-eim in the Torah’s 5:16 s.v. Ka-asher), kibbud av va-eim presentation, there seems to be little 11 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Shavuot 5775 By fiat,kibbud av va-eim is rendered consequently, what appeared to against an aseh derabanan; why is impotent in a clash against another be a clash between a de’oraita and kibbud av va-eim the only mitzvah mitzvah. Kibbud av va-eim can never derabanan is in fact a clash between hyper-sensitive to kavod Shamayim? compete against kavod Shamayim, the two mitzvot de’oraita: Moreover, for the Beit Yosef, the impotence of kibbud av va-eim is נראה שהטעם משום דכיון דקי”ל דכל מילי .honor of Heaven stipulated by a gezeirat ha-katuv דרבנן אסמכינהו אלאו דלא תסור הרי הוא The inferiority ofkibbud av va-eim, in (textual decree) — ”Ani Hashem” — ככל דברי תורה. fact, runs deeper. The same Gemara counterintuitive as it may be. Tosafot in Yevamot rules that kibbud av va- It seems that the reason is that it is (Yevamot 5b s.v. Kulkhem), however, eim is an exception to the otherwise established that all rabbinic laws are suggest that this fiat is superfluous, universal principle of aseh docheh lo based on the prohibition of “do not stray” for the impotence of kibbud av va-eim ta’aseh, incapable of displacing even an [from their words], it is treated as a could be derived even in its absence. ordinary lav. The Gemara cryptically biblical commandment. After all, the Gemara Kiddushin( cites kibbud av va-eim’s rank as a But this proposed solution of the Kesef 31a) rules that honoring one’s mere hekhsher mitzvah, a preparatory, Mishnah does not sufficiently account father prevails when it conflicts with instrumental mitzvah, to explain its for the Rambam’s position. It may honoring one’s mother because “ conspicuous impotence.3 But this atah explain the derabanan dimension, but ” — explanation requires clarification: In ve-imkha chayavin bikhvod avikha it begs the question as to why the aseh you and your mother are obligated what sense is kibbud av va-eim only a de’oraita of kibbud av va-eim should to honor your father. So too, argue hekhsher mitzvah; in what sense is it cede to a fellow aseh. Second, it is Tosafot, since child and parent alike only a vehicle to achieve something not at all apparent that the Rambam are charged with — else? kavod Shamayim ascribes to the view that lo tasur “hu ve-aviv muzharin” — it intuitively Further still, the Rambam in Hilkhot transfiguresmitzvot derabanan into follows that kibbud av va-eim cannot Mamrim (6:12) remarkably rules that mitzvot de’oraita.5 To be sure, the Kesef override another mitzvah. On the mitzvat aseh of kibbud av va-eim Mishnah had his own reservations, Tosafot’s view, then, the impotence of is incapable of overriding a fellow and in his Beit Yosef, he puts forth an kibbud av va-eim is not only a fact, it is mitzvat aseh and, more strikingly, alternative solution: an intuitive fact. even a mitzvat aseh mi-derabanan ?Have we arrived at a contradiction דכיון דמאני ה’ כולכם חייבים בכבודי ילפינן (rabbinic mitzvah). This despite the We opened our analysis with a survey לה, ומילי דרבנן ודאי הם כבודו של מקום אין Rambam’s ruling elsewhere (Yibum of mekorot that speak to kibbud av לו לעבור עליהם בשביל כבוד אביו. 6: 10) that one aseh may displace axiological import, “ another.4 The Rambam’s ruling is va-eim’s chamurah Since we derive it from “I am God, all ” in the language of the particularly perplexing because the shebichamurot of you are obligated to honor Me,” and Yerushalmi. Yet in the of Gemara’s ruling deals specifically with sugya aseh observing rabbinic decrees are certainly docheh lo ta’aseh, kibbud av va-eim the case of kibbud av va-eim against a part of honoring God, one may not seems conspicuously subordinate to lo ta’aseh. On what grounds does the violate them to honor a parent. other mitzvot. How does Rambam extend the Gemara’s ruling kibbud av va- eim’s subordinate status cohere with to a mitzvat aseh — and especially to A special fiat Ani“ Hashem” declares its axiological prominence? an aseh mi-derabanan? kibbud av va-eim powerless against kavod Shamayim, regardless of Further, this is not just an What underlies the Rambam’s ruling? how trivially the latter manifests. inconsistency between the rules How can the aseh de’oraita of kibbud Accordingly, kibbud av va-eim cannot of aseh docheh lo ta’aseh of kibbud av va-eim be powerless against an displace even an aseh derbanan, for it av va-eim and its other associated aseh derabanan? TheKesef Mishneh too instantiates kavod ha-Makom. halakhot, for the contradiction (Mamrim 6:12, s.v. Afilu), vexed penetrates internally, within the laws by this very difficulty, suggests that TheBeit Yosef’s solution to the of aseh docheh lo ta’aseh. The hitherto this ruling is grounded in lo tasur. Rambam’s ruling only deepens the discussed sugya in Yevamot (6a) points Every mitzvah derabanan is thereby conceptual difficulty: Why iskibbud to kibbud av va-eim’s exceptional elevated to de’oraita standing, and av va-eim the only mitzvah enervated 12 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Shavuot 5775 impotence; but there are other sugyot that suggest that, to the contrary, kibbud av va-eim is exceptionally potent, more capable of prevailing in conflict than any other mitzvah. Typically, halakhah maintains that an aseh cannot displace a lav that is conjoined with an aseh, ein aseh docheh lo ta’aseh va-aseh. The Gemara inBava Metzia (32a), however, suggests the possibility of kibbud av va-eim constituting an exception to this rule; only kibbud av va-eim would be sufficiently potent to displace loa ta’aseh va-aseh. The rationale adduced is particularly striking: הואיל והוקש כיבוד אב ואם לכבודו של מקום שנאמר כאן כבד את אביך ואת אמך ונאמר להלן כבד את ה’ מהנך.