On Honouring One’s Parents
The following is an excerpt from a commentary on the Ten Commandments by Patrick D. Miller regarding the fifth commandment, honour your father and mother:
“From my… work with the Hebrew of Exodus 20, two facts are clear to me: the first is that honor is not a synonym for obedience and the second is that the Decalogue is not addressed to children.”
Honouring one’s parents is not a command directed at little kids. It is a command for everyone. This is an active choice made by those who are capable of making it. Which means we can choose to follow, or not follow, the command to celebrate the worth and value of of our parents.
“When a man or woman honours their father and their mother, the LORD says ‘I ascribe it as though I dwelt with them and was honoured myself.”
- Rabbinical teaching
