Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
It was with these words that the fifth commandment was emphasized:
"Honor thy parents to whom thou owest existence, as thou honorest Me.
Honor the body that bore thee, and the breasts that gave thee suck,
maintain thy parents, for thy parents took part in thy creation." [223]
For man owes his existence to God, to his father, and to his mother, in
that he receives from each of his parents five of the parts of his
body, and ten from God. The bones, the veins, the nails, the brain, and
the white of the eye come from the father. The mother gives him skin,
flesh, blood, hair, and the pupil of the eye. God gives him the
following: breath, soul, light of countenance, sight, hearing, speech,
touch, sense, insight, and understanding. [224] When a human being
honors his parents, God says: "I consider it as if I had dwelled among
men and they had honored Me," but if people do not honor their parents,
God say: "It is good that I do not dwell among men, or they would have
treated Me superciliously, too." [225]
God not only commanded to love and fear parents as Himself, but in some
respects He places the honor due to parents even higher than that due
Him. A man is only then obliged to support the poor or to perform
certain religious ceremonies, if he has the wherewithal, but it is the
duty of each one even to go begging at men' doors, if he cannot
otherwise maintain his parents. [226]
The sixth commandment said: "O My people Israel, be no slayers of men,
do not associate with murderers, and shun their companionship, that
your children may not learn the craft of murder." As a penalty for
deeds of murder, God will send a devastating war over mankind. [227]
There are two divisions in Sheol, an inner and an outer. In the latter
are all those who were slain before their time. There they stay until
the course of the time predestined them is run; and every time a murder
has been committed, God says: "Who has slain this person and has forced
Me to keep him in the outer Sheol, so that I must appear unmerciful to
have removed him from earth before his time?" [228] On the Judgement
Day the slain will appear before God, and will implore Him: "O Lord of
the world! Thou hast formed me, Thou hast developed me, Thou hast been
gracious unto me while I was in the womb, so that I left it unharmed.
Thou in Thy great mercy hast provided for me. O Lord of all worlds!
Grant me satisfaction from this villain that knew no pity for me." Then
God's wrath will be kindled against the murderer, into Gehenna will he
throw him and damn him for all eternity, while the slain will see
satisfaction given him, and be glad. [229]
The seventh commandment says: "O My people of Israel, be not
adulterers, nor the accomplices or companions of adulterers, that your
children after you may not be adulterers. Commit no unchaste deeds,
with your hands, feet, eyes, or ears, for as a punishment therefore the
plague will come over the world." [230]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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