nor does the God of Israel." At the third commandment they said:
"Is there a king that would like to have people swear false oaths by
his name?" At the fourth commandment they said: "No King
dislikes to see his birthday celebrated." But when the people heard
the fifth commandment, "Honor thy father and thy mother," they
said: "According to our laws, if a man enrolls himself as a servant
of the king, he thereby disowns his parents. God, however, makes
it a duty to honor father and mother; truly, for this is honor due to
Him." [222]

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