The Fifth Commandment
Surely “Honour your father and mother” belongs to the second tablet!

by Rabbi Dr Raymond Apple

The Torah reading contains the second version of the Decalogue. The commandments were engraved on two stone tablets – five on one, five on the other. According to tradition, the first five are between man and G-d, and the second five between man and man.

The symmetry is impressive, but the fifth commandment seems to spoil the system. Surely “Honour your father and mother” belongs to the second tablet! How can it be on the first as a law between man and G-d?

To find an answer we have to go back to the beginning of history. Man was created alone and felt lonely. He needed relationships. “I am here,” said the Almighty. On one level that provided a relationship. But on the social level man was still alone. So G-d created another being, Eve, as Adam’s earthly partner. But both relationships came with a price tag. The relationship with G-d brought responsibilities, as did that with fellow creatures. Man had to look both above and laterally.

Looking above brought the duty, “Love the Lord your G-d” (also part of this reading). Laterally the duty was “Love your fellow as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). But the second duty said something more: “Love your fellow as yourself: I am the Lord”. Earthly love, of which the basic level is love of parents, was only possible because of the Lord.

Loving one’s parents is thus a duty we owe to G-d.

HOLDING FAST

A verse in this portion is proclaimed just before the reading of the Torah: “V’attem had’vekim” – “You who hold fast to the Lord your God are all alive today” (Deut. 4:4). How about religious people who suffer and die and irreligious people who survive? Doesn’t human experience disprove the verse?

One answer is that the verse is speaking about the nation. The nation is not always completely righteous, but there is enough “holding fast to the Lord” to explain our survival as a people.

HOW MUCH CRIME?

The law against murder is basic to the Ten Commandments, as to the ethic of every nation. The Torah knows, however, of more than one kind of murder, and provides a method of dealing with unpremeditated killing. There were cities of refuge to which the perpetrator could flee from the wrath of “the avenger of blood”, six cities (Num. 35:11-15) – three on each side of the Jordan. Yet many more people lived west of the Jordan, as against a mere two and a half tribes on the east. In an age when people demand that action not be “disproportionate” (another word hijacked by people who live by slogans and not sanity) we wonder whether the provision of cities of refuge was proportionate. Maybe there was more crime and anarchy on the east of the Jordan, perhaps because it was further away from the sanctuary.

Rabbi Dr Raymond Apple AO RFD is Emeritus Rabbi of the Great Synagogue, Sydney. He is now retired and lives in Jerusalem, where he spends his time writing, delivering shiurim, and editing books for Targum Press. He also writes articles for various publications, including Hamodia.

Rabbi Apple's new book, a lavishly-illustrated history of the Great Synagogue, Sydney, is a lively story that links up with Jewish and Australian history. Don't miss out on your copy!