“If you build a society in which children honor their parents, your society will long survive. And the corollary is: A society in which children do not honor their parents is doomed to self-destruction.”
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The center, the focal point, of the universe is Israel [as per many many sources]. [That is why the world is obssesed with her:-) without them knowing all the Jewish sources].
The center of Israel is Yerushalayim.
The center of Yerushalayim is the Beis Hamikdash.
The center of the Beis Hamikdash is the Kodesh Hakodashim.
The centerpiece of the Kodesh Kodashim are the Luchos with the Aseres Hadibros.
The center point of the Luchos is ... the mitzva to honor your parents. כבד את אביך ואת אמך. Number FIVE!!:-) Highhhhhhh five!
So it emerges that the center of existence is the mitzva to honor one's parents.
That makes is a PRETTY SERIOUS mitzva!!
I don't know any frum Jews who eat ham and cheese.
I don't know any frum Jews married to Gentiles.
I don't know any frum Jews who eat on Yom Kippur.
I don't know any frum Jewish who have a christmas tree.
There are plenty of otherwise frum Jews who don't properly honor their parents.
This is a huge error! Like - you almost can't do worse.
There is almost nothing more vile than a person who doesn't appreciate that he owes his very existence, his eternal reality, which is worth more to him than anything else, to his parents and treats them with less than the respect they deserve.
That is besides everything they did for you after they created you. Because it is also evil not to appreciate ANY kindness one did for you. Certainly for all your parents have done from the second you were conceived. Like, thanks Mom for eating [and not smoking or snorting crack-:)!!] when I was in utero!! Saved my life!!
It is not always easy to be a good child but the more one thinks about it, the easier it becomes.
That is even if they messed you up [most of of our parents did to a certain extent b/c they just transfered their emotional issues to us w/o even being aware. Then we pass the favor forward and do the same to our children:-)]. As Mitch Albom wrote in The Five People You Meet In Heaven "All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair." And still. They are your parents.
The Western world often despises authority [exemplified by the political left - being progressive means that the people before you were regressive and thus deserving of more scorn than respect] and has a very "I do what I feel like attitude" so if I want to kill a baby b/c that is what I feel like doing, I am going to do that and even go to the Supreme Court to assert that *right* [even though I am *left*]. It's all about ME! That leaves little room for an *obligation* to honor parents.
Someone who doesn't honor his parents properly is a completely אפגעפרעגטע מענטש, אדם מופרך לגמרי, מתחת לכל ביקורת אפשרית. He is IMMORAL!
If one does stumble in this area [we all do, אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא] then he MUST immediately acknowledge his sin and beg forgiveness.
Part of the Tumah, the evil, the abomination, the noxiousness, of Christianity and Islam, is that they are both rooted in Judaism. Yet, instead of appreciating that they owe their spiritual lives and meaning [and there is nothing a human being craves for more than meaning] to us - they [generally but not always] hate us.
Mussar Haskel: Appreciate your Source. G-d and parents.
