Let My People Know

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: “A wish rather than a command.”

Jewish Law does not oblige us to love father and mother.

Respect is something that the Law can command; emotions are not within its power.

Parents often complain about emotional neglect rather than financial or other disrespect.

Children may be guilt ridden because they don’t love their parents.

Love comes from individual, unique relationships; whether or not there are blood ties does not create, by itself, an emotional closeness.

It does not mean that people should not love their parents.

But it should be a wish rather than a command.

–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz