Torah Portion

Nachas From Children,
Nachas From Parents

ents have done for us.
One of the fascinating midrashim
describing the Israelites' receiving God's
word at Mt. Sinai tells us that represen-
tatives of the other nations of the world
were also present on that day. When
they heard the first several command-
ments proclaimed by the divine voice ("I
am your God. You shall have no other
gods besides Me") they said to them-
e festival of Shavuot brings
selves, This God seems to need self-
any memories and images,
glory." But, in the legend, when they
dreams and promises. We
heard the fifth commandment ("Honor
combine thoughts of the reve-
your
father and your mother"), they
lation at Mt. Sinai with our hopes for
changed their minds and
the new generation of Jews
accepted the first teachings.
whom we bless at the North
The midrash demonstrates
American Jewish observance of
that
the mitzvah of honoring
affirmation/confirmation. We
one's
parents (one's past) has
recite Yizkor memorial prayers
true meaning only in a world
for our parents and loved ones,
and society in which the first
vowing to maintain their ideals
four commandments are
and praying that their eternal
observed.
Parents are respect-
rest will be bshalom, in peace.
ed
and
followed
only in a
I recall, to this day, a mar-
context
of
love,
kindness,
velous Shavuot lesson taught
decency and morality.
RABBI
by one of my rabbinic col-
If parents want to be hon-
NORMAN T.
leagues in Cleveland. As we
ored
and remembered by
once again read the Ten
ROMAN
their children, then they must
Commandments in the Torah,
Special to the
live according to all of the
we recognize that the second
Jewish News
Ten Commandments, and
commandment creates some
more. All of us must learn
uneasiness for us: "God will
what the other nations of the world dis-
visit the sins of the parents upon the
cerned at Sinai: Our Jewish children
children even unto the third and fourth
should
be able to have nachas (joy,
generation, of those who hate Me."
pride)
from
their parents.
The significance of this thought espe-
On
this
celebration
of Shavuot, as we
cially bothered Onkelos, the translator
remember
our
promises,
bless our future
of the Bible into Aramaic, and the great
and
memorialize
those
who
came before
commentator Rashi. They answer that
us,
let
us
all
commit
ourselves
to being
punishment is visited upon those chil-
the
kind
of
parents
and
children
each
dren only when they follow in the evil
needs the other to be. Let us be proud
footsteps of their parents and "continue
and respectful of each other, showing
to hate Me."
chesed and dedication to the morality of
And those children who do not fol-
the Ten Commandments.
low their parents' examples to do wrong?
Let us all pray and act so as to have
God's reaction is found in the succeed-
nachas
from our children, and let our
ing verse, "Showing love and kindness to
children
have nachas from us.
the thousandth generation of those who

Shabbat Shavuot:
Deuteronomy 15:19-
16:17; Numbers 28:26-
31; Habbakuk 3:1-19.

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love Me and keep My mitzvot." An
interesting "reward," no?
We might expect the believers in God
receive "blessing" or material goods of
some sort. But this verse promises
chesed, understood by our traditional
sages as "love and kindness."
On Shavuot, looking back at our
people's history and forward to our
future, we need to remember that
chesed has been God's choice of reward
for those who are faithful.
The love and kindness we enjoy
today as members of a vibrant Jewish
community in a free land is a direct
result of what our parents and grandpar-

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Norman T. Roman is rabbi of
Temple Ito/ Ann.

Conversati'ons

What kind of act increases the gen-
erations' honor for each other? In
which deeds of our parents do we
take the greatest pride? In which
deeds of our children? In what
ways do we disregard the lessons of
the Ten Commandments, denying
ourselves the chesed (love and
kindness) of our children and/or
parents? What are the Ten
Commandments for this genera-
tion?

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