Therefore, young sweet men of Klal Yisrael, give honor to your G-d, and be careful to honor your parents. Do not deviate from their commands right or left, even if they tell you that right is left. There is a very bad trait amongst sons, that they think that they have more knowledge and understanding than their parents. If only they would think that the Torah testifies that wisdom lies with the aged, and that the Tana said “Do not rely on your own understanding!”. Even if, G-d forbid, the children are right and their parents are missing knowledge, Hashem’s decree remains that one must listen to them and not anger them, even if they have done something wrong towards their own children. This is the statute of the Torah, as Chazal said, “Until where does the obligation to honor one’s parents reach? It reaches the extent that if the father steals the son’s purse full of money and throws it into the sea in front of the son, that the son must not embarrass the father”.
A person should reflect how much money he would spend to receive the honor of opening the Ark, or to be the Sandak at a circumcision etc., even though there is no biblical or rabbinical commandment to do these things and it is just for cherishing the related commandments. He should compare these things with the great positive biblical command to honor one’s parents which one can fulfil each time one listens to one’s parents.
