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Just as we must be grateful to God for providing us with so much, including life itself, so too we should be grateful to our parents for providing us with so much, including life itself. Indeed, we are taught that just as there is a mitzva to honor God, so there is a mitzva to honor one’s parents: “Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12); and just as there is a mitzva to revere God, so too there is a mitzva to revere one’s parents: “Each of you must revere your mother and father” (Leviticus 19:3). Just as the Torah commands us not to curse God, so too it commands us not to curse our parents. The Sages tell us, “There are three partners in the creation of a person: God, the father, and the mother. When a person honors his or her parents, God says, ‘I consider it as if I dwelt among them and they honored Me’” (Kiddushin 30b). The tremendous importance of this mitzva is clear from its inclusion in the Ten Commandments (2:17 above).
