Shalom sweeet friends!!!!
This dvar Torah is dedicated to my mother upon her birthday. May she enjoy many more in good health with my father, and have much nachas from her children and grandchildren.
It should also be a zchus for the refuah of
Chaim Yonatan Mordechai ben Pesha Elka
Nosson Chaim ben Zelda
Noam ben Leah
Naomi bas Tova
And to all the sweet yidden who do so much for me and who I love so much. You know who you are....
In this weeks parsha [in the US] Pashas Kedoshim we read of the mitzvah to revere one's parents - איש אמו ואביו תיראו.
When the gemara [Kiddushin 31] wants to illustrate how far one must go in honoring one's parents the example given is that of a certain Goy from Ashkelon named Dama who didn't wake his father up from his slumber even at great financial loss and another time his mother mentally deranged mother spit at him and ripped his clothing in the presence of important Roman officials and he took it silently.
The questions begs - Could the gemara find no other example of extreme care and sacrifice to behave properly to one's parents than a Goy named Dama? They couldn't dig out some good stories about the Chofetz Chaim or the Vilna Gaon? Go to Amazon, order a few gadol biographies and copy them into the gemara. Why Dama the Goy and not a Jew?
The answer given by our rabbis is huge.....
To honor one's parents one need not be "frum" or even Jewish. Parents deserve honor due to the very fact that they brought the child into the world. It is a metzius - an undeniable reality that is part and parcel of natural ethics. It is basic to the HUMAN condition. That is why the example of a Goy is brought. This is something UNIVERSAL and should be viewed as such.
I would like to take this a step further. The "centerpiece" of the aseres hadibros is the mitzva to honor one's parents. Not a "religious" command per se but a very universal one. "Menschlechkeit" requires that one honor one's parents. This teaches us that the basis and cornerstone of all religious practice must be menschlechkeit.
Sweeeeeet beloved friends!!! May we all merit to live lives filled with natural goodness [firstly to our parents] and on top of that be HOLY [as the parsha begins] because to be holy is, first and foremost, to be a mensch. As we say in davening לעולם יהא אדם - first be a mensch, and then ירא שמים בסתר ובגלוי!
Bi-ahava rabba and brachos for a Shabbos of bliss,
Me
