Musar zu Wajikra 20:9

כי איש איש אשר יקלל את אביו ואת אמו . Some commentators have difficulty with the word כי at the beginning of this verse. They cannot relate it to what the Torah writes immediately before this verse (20,9). One may view the point the Torah makes as simple logic. If cursing one's biological father or mother is a capital crime, how much more so would cursing one's Heavenly father, one's spiritual origin, be a capital crime! G–d is one of the partners in the creation of every human being. If obedience to one's parents is required, obedience to G–d's statutes (20,8) all the more so. G–d, after all, has contributed the most valuable part of all to every human being. When we find Yonadav instructing his descendants to abstain from wine, building and dwelling in permanent houses, etc. (Jeremiah 35,7), and these descendants adhere strictly to such cumbersome instructions by their ancestor, the prophet contrasts their behavior with the average Jew who ignores even G–d's commands.

When the Torah speaks about someone cursing his father or mother in 20,9, the opening word כי, is difficult. The meaning could be that if a person who curses father or mother must face execution, how much more so is such a penalty applicable to someone who curses G–d. The Torah addresses those charged with carrying out the execution, i.e. it is part of the ושמרתם את חקותי in verse 8. Nachmanides understands the word כי as referring to 19,3 the commandment to respect mother and father. The Torah would tell us here that in the event a person ignores the commandment of 19,3 but curses his parents instead, he would face the death penalty. His explanation would be difficult to accept because the Torah dealt with too many other subjects in the interval. I see no such problem because I have demonstrated how all the various legislations form a continuous concept, i.e. aspects of sanctification. The Alshich as well as Klee Chemdah elaborate further along these lines. [cf. my translation of Torat Moshe by the Alshich, page 543. Ed.] The paragraph concludes with the promise that by making a separation between the impure and the pure we will achieve sanctity and will be apart from all the other nations (20,26). This means that we will merit to live in a world all of which is under the spiritual aura of the Sabbath.