Dear Jewish Response Staff,
I read a puzzling passage of the Talmud in Kiddushin 31a. It says that when G-d gave the Torah on Mount Sinai and began with the first two commandments: "I am the L-rd your G-d...You shall have no other gods before Me," the nations of the world said, "He is demanding His own honor." But when He said, "Honor your father and mother" the nations accepted the first commandments as well.
What is the meaning of this? I understand that honoring father and mother made more sense to them, but why did that cause them to accept the first two commandments?
Also, the Talmud says (Kiddushin 30b) that the honor due to parents is similar to the honor due to G-d. Why is this so?
Larry
Dear Larry,
There are two ways to serve G-d: out of fear, and out of love. The Rambam writes:
A man must not say: I will keep the commandments of the Torah and learn its wisdom in order to receive all the blessings written in it, or in order to get into the World to Come; and I will refrain from the sins against which the Torah warns in order to be saved from the curses written in the Torah, or so that I should not be cut off in the World to Come. It is not proper to serve G-d in this way, for one who serves in this way is only serving out of fear; this is not the level of the prophets or sages. Only the ignorant and the women serve G-d in this way, as well as the children, who are trained to serve Him out of fear until their knowledge increases and they can serve Him out of love.One who serves G-d out of love studies Torah, does mitzvos and follows the proper path not for any worldly reason, not out of fear of punishment or to gain reward, but rather he follows the path of truth because it is truth. He will be rewarded as well, but that is not his goal. This is a great level and not every wise man reaches it. This is the level of Abraham our father, whom G-d called "the one who loved Me" since he served G-d purely out of love. This is what G-d commanded us through Moses, "And you shall love the L-rd your G-d." When a person loves G-d properly, he will immediately do all the commandments out of love. (Rambam, Laws of Teshuva 10:1-2)
The reason why G-d wants us to serve Him out of love is because He loves us with an endless, unconditional love, and He wants us to love Him in return. If we serve Him out of fear, like someone obeying a command given at gunpoint, that does not show any love.
All loving relationships among human beings are conditional, except for the love between a parent and a child. A father and mother love their child regardless of whether the child does anything for them. That is why G-d commanded us to repay that love with "honor of father and mother" - serving them out of love.
That is the similarity between honoring father and mother and honoring G-d. Both are services done out of love for someone who loves you unconditionally.
And that is why the nations, once they heard the command to honor father and mother, understood that in the first two commandments as well, G-d was not telling us to serve Him just because He is powerful and can reward and punish; He is telling us that when we think about His boundless love for us, we should be filled with a desire to reciprocate and serve Him and only Him. How could we serve an idol that never loved us, let alone did anything for us? Therefore they accepted the first two commandments.
Sincerely,
Jewish Response Staff