The Fifth Commandment

The first four commandments focus on man's relationship to God. The last six commandments involve man's relationship with other people. The Fifth Commandment is "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you." (RSV) This command reveals the significance God attaches to parents. When people honor their parents, God regards it as if they honor Him. Hebrew sages expressed it this way: "There are three partners in a human being: God, father, and mother. If someone honors his parents, God considers it as if he had honored Him. But if not, God says, 'I did well not to live among them, for if I had dwelled among them they would have tormented Me, as well.'" It seems clear that one should always be aware that respect for ones parents is part of his obligation to God.

According to a Hebraic worldview, respect for parents is a cornerstone of faith in the entire Torah. Their tradition is based on the chain from Abraham and Sinai, a chain in which the links are successive generations of parents and children. Therefore, the Fifth Commandment is a guarantor of the previous four! To honor a parent meant to provide them with comfort, the giving of food and drink, dressing them, and escorting them. According to rabbinic teaching, the honor due parents was similar to that the first three commandments render to God. The child was not to do anything that might cause a parent to be disgraced or degraded.

As we consider this commandment, it should cause us to stop and remember our obligation to honor our parents. Even if your parents have passed away, although you may not provide for them physically, you can live your life in such a way as to bring honor to them. I don't read an expiration date, do you? Notice that honoring does not require that one always agree with a parent; however, one is required to respect them. May we not forget this Scripture as it must have been very important to God to have included it in the "Ten."