출애굽기 20:12의 주석

למען יארכון ימיך THAT THY DAYS MAY BE LONG — If thou honourest them they will be long, and if not, they will be shortened — for the words of the Torah may be explained as concise statements: from what is included in a positive statement we may infer the negative and from what is included in a negative statement we may infer the positive (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:12:2).

HONOR THY FATHER. Having finished all that we are obligated towards the Creator Himself and His glory, He turns now to command us about those matters which concern created beings. He begins with the father, for in relation to his offspring, he is akin to a creator, being partner with Him in the forming of the child.⁴⁷¹Kiddushin 30 b: “There are three partners in man: the Holy One, blessed be He, his father and his mother.” G-d is our first Father, and he who begets it [i.e., the child] is our last male parent. This is why He said in the Book of Deuteronomy, [Honor thy father… as the Eternal thy G-d commanded thee].⁴⁷²Deuteronomy 5:16. That is, “just as I have commanded you concerning My honor, so do I command you concerning the honor of those who have joined Me in your formation.” Now Scripture has not explained [the nature of the honor we are to give our parents], for it may be derived from the honor mentioned above that we owe to our first Father, blessed be He. Thus, one is to acknowledge [his male parent] as his father and not deny him, saying of another man that he is his father. Nor should he serve him because of his estate or any other benefit he hopes to derive from him. Nor should he take his father’s name and swear “by the life of my father” in vain or falsely. There are other matters which are included within the term “honor,” for we are commanded in every aspect thereof, and they are explained in the words of our Rabbis.⁴⁷³“What is honoring [one’s parents? It entails] providing them with food and drink, raiment and warmth, and guiding their footsteps [when they are old and infirm]” (Kiddushin 31 b). The Sages have already said⁴⁷⁴Ibid., 30b. that honoring parents has been likened to honoring G-d.
Now since this commandment refers to creatures on the earth, He has designated its reward to be prolongation of life on earth which He will give us. But in the opinion of our Rabbis,⁴⁷⁵Ibid., 39b. the purport of the verse is “that thy days may be long and upon the Land.” [It thus expresses two declarations]: He promises that our lives will be prolonged by observing this commandment — i.e., that G-d will fulfill our days in this world and they will be prolonged in the World to Come, which is unending — and that our dwelling will forever be on the good earth⁴⁷⁶A reference to eternal life. which He will give us. And in the Book of Deuteronomy, He expressly stated it: that thy day may be long, and that it may go well with thee, upon the Land which the Eternal thy G-d giveth thee.⁴⁷²Deuteronomy 5:16. Thus they are two promises.

למען יאריכון ימיך, these are the five Commandments which by their observance contribute to your enjoying a life of a single dimension, i.e. length without breadth, another way of stating what the Talmud called in Kidushin 39 “in a world which consists entirely of “length,” [unlimited duration. Ed.]. By performing these five Commandments one renders honour to G’d, as a result of which the one rendering this honour to G’d will himself become part of G’d’s eternal life. Doing this involves knowing that G’d created the universe out of “nothing,” no physical substance. It also involves accepting G’d as the exclusive Divinity in the universe and therefore not worshipping anyone else or anything else. It also involves not only not rebelling against Him in deed, but not contemplating rebellion even in one’s thoughts or speech It involves actively honouring Him, after all, He is our father, our maker. Are we not commanded to even honour our mortal parents?

Honoring one's parents is next to [the commandment to observe] Shabbat to tell you that just as one is obligated to respect Shabbat one is obligated to honor one's parents.

למען יאריכון ימיך, "so that your days will be long, etc." The expression יאריכון implies that this will be a natural consequence; it is not a reward by G'd. Had it been intended as a reward, The Torah would have had to write something like: "I will lengthen your life, etc." The Torah may have taught us that the miraculous feature which attends performance of honouring father and mother is that persons doing so will enjoy long life. There are several commandments which are associated with miraculous phenomena; in all such cases this is not part of the reward for performing them.

כבד את אביך ואת אמך, “Honour your father and your mother.” After G’d had completed the list of duties we have vis a vis Him, He begins a list of primary obligations we have concerning our fellow man. He begins the list with an obligation to honour one’s biological father, as the father is G’d’s partner in the creation of any new human life. Whereas Hashem is mankind’s original father, the biological father is his final, most recent father. It follows that just as G’d commanded us in His capacity as our Creator, our father is entitled to a commensurate degree of honour and respect, as he fulfilled this role on earth. [It goes without saying that man’s mother is the third partner in the creation of every human being after the first pair of humans. Ed.] The Torah does not go into specifics of how such respect is to be shown to one’s parents. A major component of such honour accorded to one’s father is to publicly acknowledge him as such, just as the basic honour we accord G’d is that we publicly acknowledge Him as the Creator. We must not accord similar honour to other males in order to be recognized as the heirs of another male, for instance, for the sake of reaping some other benefit by such recognition of someone who is not our biological father as such. If one swears by the life of one’s father, one must not portray someone else as one’s father, for instance. Our sages have furnished us with a list of other activities the performance of which is considered proof of our observing this commandment. Our sages, in stressing the importance of this commandment, have compared the parents’ claim to be honoured by their children to G’d’s claim to be honoured by His creatures. They derive this, for instance, from the use of the attribute Hashem in this commandment, an attribute which does not occur during any of the last five Commandments, the reason being that those concern inter-personal relations, not man’s relations with his Creator. Seeing that in essence, the performance of the commandment to honour one’s parents concerns itself with issues of relevance in our lives on this earth, the Torah, in its promise of reward also describes this reward in terms of advantages to be enjoyed in our life on this earth, i.e. long life in the land of our forefathers. Our sages say that the promise of the reward is to be divided into two separate promises. 1) Long life; 1a) life in the land of Israel. These two aspects of the reward speak about the terrestrial world, whereas 2) the word יאריכון in itself speaks of a domain in which time is unlimited, the world to come in the celestial regions in the words of the sages: בעולם שכולו ארוך, a world which is not bound by time. Moses elaborates on this further in Deuteronomy 5,16 by adding the words ולמען ייטב לך, “and in order that it will be good for you.” Seeing that there was no obvious need to append the letter ן in the word יאריכו, our commentators see in this a hint that the mother is included in all that is written here.

כבד את אביך ואת אמך, “honor your father and your mother.” Up until now G’d had instructed the people to honor the original father in heaven, i.e. Himself; now He wanted to sign this side of the Tablets with the command to honor progenitors in the lower world, here on earth. In effect, what G’d says here is “just as I commanded you to treat Me with honor and respect, so I command you this day to treat your father and mother who are My partners in creating you with respect and honor. Just as one of the most important aspects of honoring G’d is to acknowledge Him as such, so one of the most important aspects of honoring one’s parents is to acknowledge them as such.
Just as an important aspect of belief and faith in the Lord is the second commandment לא יהיה לך, that you must not exchange Him for another deity, so an integral part of the commandment to honor one’s father and mother is not to deny the fact that they are in fact your father and mother. Just as it is forbidden to swear a false or vain oath in the name of the Lord, so it is forbidden to use the reference to the life of one’s father or mother as a way of reinforcing one’s credibility when swearing a false or vain oath. Furthermore, it is forbidden to serve one’s father because one expects to inherit his wealth or even because one hopes to receive the honor and title one’s father enjoyed during his own life time.
There are numerous details pertaining to the observance of this commandment which our sages have taught us in this regard. To mention but a few: the son is obligated to provide for his father with food, drink, clothing, etc., both as a financial contribution as well as being a physical support for him in case of illness, frailty in his father’s old age, etc. (Kiddushin 31). In Proverbs 3,8 Solomon instructs us כבד את ה' מהונך, “demonstrate your honoring the Lord by using your wealth.” The way one honors the Lord with one’s wealth [seeing He has neither need of it nor use for it, Ed.] is to distribute some of one’s wealth to the poor. One must set aside the various tithes the Torah has instructed us to give to the priest, the Levite, or the poor. Seeing the Torah has set aside tithes and gifts for these people who are not your next of kin, one must certainly provide for one’ parents if the need arises.
As to the reward promised here that he who observes this commandment will enjoy long life in the land of Israel, Rav Saadyah Gaon has explained that seeing that on occasion father and son share many years together on this earth, i.e. the father enjoys in inordinately long life, and as a result the son may feel that the obligation to look after his father in addition to his obligation to look after his own wife and children has become very burdensome, this is the reason why the Torah went out of its way in this instance to promise long life to the son who observes this commandment meticulously. This is not as much a promise of reward as it is a warning not to neglect fulfillment of this commandment as failing to observe it is equivalent to playing with one’s own life. If you are interested in long life yourself, make sure that your father and mother’s lives are enjoyable.
This concludes the first five of the Ten Commandments. They all appear on the same tablet, and, as we have demonstrated, there is conceptual linkage between all of them. To sum this up once more: the first commandment is to believe in the Lord, His existence, His exclusivity. In order that one should not think that it suffices to believe in the Lord and at the same time to believe that He has partners, the second commandment spells out that belief in any partner of G’d is intolerable. In order that someone should not say that seeing that G’d has no partner it does not matter if we bandy His name about needlessly, the Torah had to go on record that this is the very reverse of honoring Him, that one must on no account treat His name as if it were something common or ordinary. Having begun to tell us what is an act of dishonoring G’d, i.e. using His name in vain, the Torah then instructed us in an example of how to honor His name, i.e. observing His Sabbath. If we really want to show that we honor Him and His name we will be meticulous in our Sabbath observance. Having instructed us in how to honor Him by honoring the Sabbath, the Torah then proceeded to instruct us to honor those who have begotten us, i.e. our parents. This concludes my commentary on the first five of the Ten Commandments and how they are related to each other.

From the positive to the negative. [Rashi knows this] because the Ten Commandments are all negative mitzvos, except for the first, which is essential and the basis for all the mitzvos. Therefore Rashi explains that also this one is a negative commandment, for “inference may be made from the positive to the negative.”

V. 12. Die Erkenntnis und Anerkennung Gottes, die אנכי im Geiste von uns fordert, לא יהיה in ihren negativen Konsequenzen ausspricht, לא תשא als Granitbasis des Verkehrs des Menschen mit Menschen proklamiert und זכור im huldigenden Tatausdruck bekannt wissen will, beruht, wie dies die Beifügung: אשר הוצאתיך sofort im אנכי-Satze ausgesprochen und es im Dewarim, wie wir soeben gesehen, nochmals zu זכור erläuternd hervorgehoben worden, wesentlich auf יציאת מצרים. Nicht auf die Erforschungsergebnisse unserer Betrachtung der Natur, auf die geschichtlichen Erlebnisse unseres Volkes, durch welche Gott uns offenbar geworden und seinen Willen uns offenbar gemacht, hat Er unsere jüdische Erkenntnis und Anerkennung Gottes als Lenkers unserer Geschicke und Leiters unserer Taten gegründet. Himmel und Erde hatten zu den Menschen vergebens gesprochen, ja ihre Sprache hatte polytheistische Umdeutung gefunden, und nur die dem jüdischen Volke geschichtlich gewordenen Offenbarungen Gottes haben dem Menschen den monotheistischen Blick und das monotheistische Ohr zum Verständnis der Natur und der Geschichte wieder gebracht. יציאת מצרים und מתן תורה, diese beiden Grundfakta des jüdischen Volkes, welche unsere Gotteshuldigung als des Lenkers und Leiters unserer Geschicke und unseres Lebens konstituieren, sind geschichtliche Wahrheiten, Erkenntnis und Anerkennung geschichtlicher Wahrheiten beruhen aber lediglich auf Tradition, und Tradition beruht lediglich auf treuer Übertragung durch Eltern auf Kinder und auf williger Entgegennahme der Kinder aus den Händen der Eltern. Somit beruht die Fortdauer der großen jüdischen Gottesstiftung lediglich auf dem theoretischen und praktischen Gehorsam der Kinder gegen Vater und Mutter, und כבוד אב ואם ist die Grundbedingung der Ewigkeit der jüdischen Nation. Durch Vater und Mutter gibt Gott dem Kinde nicht nur das physische Dasein, sie sind auch faktisch das Band, das das Kind mit der jüdischen Vergangenheit verknüpft, es Jude und Jüdin sein lässt, und sie sind es, die ihm die Tradition der jüdischen Bestimmung in Erkenntnis, Sitte und Erziehung überliefern sollen. Geschichte und Gesetz soll das Kind aus ihren Händen empfangen, um einst beides ebenso auf seine Kinder zu vererben. Wie es zu seinen Eltern aufschaut, sollen seine Kinder einst zu ihm aufschauen. Ohne dieses Band zerreißt die Kette der Geschlechter, geht die jüdische Vergangenheit der Zukunft verloren, und die jüdische Nation hört auf zu sein. Diese Bedeutung jüdischer Eltern weist ihrer Würdigung die hohe Stellung im Dekaloge an und lässt das Gottesgesetz sprechen: כבד את אביך ואת אמך למען יאריכון ימיך על האדמה אשר ד׳ אלקיך נותן לך!

כבד את אביך, “Honour your father;” elsewhere we have a more detailed formulation of what is meant by “honouring” our parents, i.e. when Solomon spelled this out in Proverbs 3,9 saying: כבד את ה׳ מהונך, “honour the Lord with (part) of your wealth; all G-d asks of us is a small part of the wealth He has granted us, not all of it. We are to emulate Him in our relations with our parents, our progenitors on this earth. In Leviticus, another aspect of our relationship with our parents has been legislated when the Torah writes in Leviticus 19,3 as the first commandment after bidding us to try and become holy ourselves, that we are to revere our parents. When the Torah there continues with repeating the requirement to observe the negative commandments of His Sabbath, it hints at the definition of “reverence” being not to disregard our parents’ instructions. The Torah decrees the death penalty for anyone who curses father or mother (Exodus 21,17) a penalty similar to that decreed for cursing G-d, (using a euphemism, which is difficult to warn him not to use in this fashion) (Leviticus 24,15) (which because not carried out by human tribunal makes that sin practically unforgivable so that the penalty will be karet, posthumous disbarment as member of the Jewish people.) The death penalty for cursing parents is completely natural, as when cursing one’s parents one automatically curses G-d also, as He is one third partner in any human being, having supplied the soul. (Talmud Kidushin folio 30)

על האדמה, by observing the above-mentioned five Commandments you will merit to enjoy life without being exiled from your ancestral land. Observance of the other five Commandments are designed to protect you against falling victim to harm befalling your body, or your property, or your dignity, your standing in the eyes of your peers. Here too, observance includes not only abstaining from violating these Commandments by deed, but also not violating them by word of mouth or even contemplating violation in your mind. Basically, the last five Commandments are addressed to your life on this earth, whereas the former are addressed to ensuring your life beyond the transient life on earth.

Die Bedeutung von כבוד als dem Ausdruck des geistigen und sittlichen Wertes eines Wesens haben wir bereits an andern Stellen aus der Verwandtschaft mit כבֵד, schwer, nachgewiesen. Wir konnten sagen, כבוד sei die geistige und sittliche Schwere eines Wesens. כַבֵּד heißt daher: die Wertschätzung an den Tag zu legen, und כבד את אביך ואת אמך fordert von uns: in jeder Weise und in unserm ganzen Verhalten zu den Eltern unser Durchdrungensein von der hohen Bedeutung an den Tag legen, die Gott den Eltern uns gegenüber erteilt hat. Es gehört dazu in allererster Linie der unbedingte Gehorsam und die zuvorkommende Erfüllung aller ihrer Wünsche, die nur in dem Widerspruche mit dem göttlichen Willen (Wajikra 19, 3) ihre Grenze finden, dessen Herold ja die Eltern sein sollen, und dessen Vermittler zu sein, ja eben die Bestimmung ist, die ihnen die hohe Bedeutung erteilt. Es ist diese Bestimmung der Eltern, und nicht das größere oder geringere Maß von Wohltaten, das sie ihren Kindern erzeigt, in welcher dies "כבוד אב ואם" wurzelt, eine Verehrung, die mit der Großjährigkeit und dem Alter der Kinder nur wächst, über den Tod der Eltern hinausdauert und in ihren unbedingten, großartigen Anforderungen um Himmelsfernen das überragt, was eine gewöhnliche, sogenannte "Vernunftmoral" aus den Erwägungen der Pflichten der Dankbarkeit abzuleiten vermag und ableitet (siehe Kiduschin 30 b. 31, 32). —

אשר ה׳ אלוקיך נותן לך, which the Lord your G-d is giving you (the soil).[The following Midrash appears in the Pessikta de Rav Kahane chapter 21 on the Ten Commandments, but there the Roman is not Turnusrufus, but the Emperor Hadrianus. In my edition, (Mandelbaum) I have not found it. Ed.] The wicked Roman governor Turnusrufus asked Rabbi Akiva why the name of the Lord is mentioned seven times in the first five of the Ten Commandments, while His name does not appear even a single time in the last five of these Commandments? Thereupon Rabbi Akiva went to the palace of Turnusrufus and showed him his lance. The next time he went to the palace he showed Turnusrufus his shield. The next time he showed his armour and his various weapons. When he visited him again and came to his toilet, he found that there was no weapon or defensive shield. Upon asking why this was so, he was told that the Emperor considered it as disgraceful to bring his weapons, etc. to such a place. Thereupon Rabbi Akiva answered him that in the first five of the Ten Commandments the subjects are all sacred or at least honorable. In the second half of the Ten Commandments where the subjects are murder, theft, adultery, perjury, and man’s basic carnal urges, it would not be appropriate that the name of G-d would appear there as if He associated Himself with people guilty of such crimes. An alternate explanation regarding the presence of G-d’s name in the last five of the Ten Commandments. Violation of any of the first five Commandments means sinning against a Being that is infinite, eternal, is permanent, When someone violated one or more of the last five Commandments he only sinned against transient creatures. G-d’s name therefore did not need to be mentioned.

Indem es nicht כבד אביך ואמך, sondern את אביך ואת אמך heißt, so ist damit nicht nur die Person des Vaters und der Mutter, sondern sind auch diejenigen Personen als Gegenstand der Verehrung gesetzt, in welchen die Persönlichkeit des Vaters und der Mutter sich vergegenwärtigt, es soll der Vater auch in der Stiefmutter, die Mutter in dem Stiefvater Verehrung finden (siehe Bereschit 1 zu את השמים וגו׳). Eine gleiche Ehrerbietung wird auch für den ältesten Bruder gefordert.

Dewarim 30. 17, 18 heißt es: ואם יפנה לבבך וגו׳ הגדתי לכם היום כי אבוד לא תאריכון ימים על האדמה אשר אתה עובר את הירדן וגו׳ ,תאבדון, und ebenso daselbst 4.26: לא תאריכון ימים עליה כי השמד תשמדון. Diesem gemäß ist wohl auch hier zunächst von der nationalen Dauer des Volkes in dem ihm zu verleihenden Lande die Rede. Nur wenn die von dem ersten Geschlechte unmittelbar gewonnene Erkenntnis und der mit dem ersten Geschlechte auf dieser gewonnenen Erkenntnis geschlossene Bund durch כבוד אב ואם auf Kind und Kindeskind sich vererben und dadurch noch das späteste Geschlecht in der ganzen begeisternden Frische der Unmittelbarkeit zu Gott und seinem Gesetze wie das erste sich fühlt und bewährt, nur dann ist die Ewigkeit der Nation auf dem ihr zu verleihenden Boden garantiert. כבוד אב ואם bedingt, wie bereits bemerkt, die ewige Fortdauer der Nation. Indem aber das Gebot כבד את אביך וגו׳ nach Form und Inhalt kein nationales, sondern ein individuelles, von jedem Individuum als solchem zu erfüllendes ist, so erblicken auch die Weisen (Chulin am Ende) in dem למען יאריכון ימיך also für den einzelnen die individuelle jenseitige Fortdauer ausgesprochen, wie es für die Nation die hieniedige Unsterblichkeit bedeutet. Dewarim 5, 16 ist auch zu erläuternd hinzugefügt und dadurch כאשר צוך ד׳ אלקיך :שבת wie beim כבוד אב ואם darauf hingewiesen, dass ebenso wie die Schabbatheiligung so auch die Pflicht der Elternehre bereits in Mara erteilt war. שבת und כבוד אב ואם gehören zusammen. Sie sind beide die großen Erziehungsinstitutionen, denen Gott die Zukunft seines Volkes anvertraut. — אריכת ימים ist dort noch durch den Beisatz ולמען ייטב לך dahin erläutert, dass nicht nur die ununterbrochene Fortdauer in alle Zukunft, sondern auch das wahre Heil in aller Gegenwart durch כבוד אב ואם bedingt ist.