A little thought on the parasha
Honoring our parents is one of the main topics of this week's parasha. The mitzvah of honoring our parents is compared to honoring Hashem himself. Why is this mitzvah so powerful? Why does the accomplishment of it have tremendous "koach" to the point that Rabbi Aron Leib Shteinman said this is the mitzvah through which redemption is going to come when we fulfill it?
Rabbi Shimon Schwab gives a novel understanding. He writes that when Adam HaRishon sinned with the "Eitz HaDaat," he got contaminated and was thus expelled from Gan Eden. But he not only contaminated himself but also all the creation of the world, even the mitzvot! The "Sefarim HaKedoshim" say that even the mitzvot were expelled from Gan Eden with Adam HaRishon since he
contaminated them.
But there was one mitzvah that Adam HaRishon couldn't contaminate. It was the mitzvah of honoring our parents because he did not have parents. The only mitzvah that maintains the "koach" of "kedusha" with its purity to 100% as before the sin of Adam.
Rabbi Schwab brings a powerful proof to his yesod: when Yakov Avinu served meat to his father Itzchak Avinu to receive the blessings, the verse states: רְאֵה֙ רֵ֣יחַ בְּנִ֔י
כְּרֵ֣יחַ שָׂדֶ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר בֵּרְכ֖וֹ יְהֹוָֽה, translated as: Ah! the smell of my son is like the smell of the fields that יהוה has blessed. Rashi comments there that the smell was that of Gan Eden!
Itzchak Avinu smelled Gan Eden through the fulfillment of the mitzvah of honoring
his parents by his son Yakov Avinu. The smell of Gan Eden came down through this mitzvah! Since this is the only mitzvah that was not contaminated, it has the power to bring Gan Eden!
May all have the strength to achieve the highest of the levels through the fulfillment of the
mitzvah of honoring our parents.
