GRANDSON AND GRANDFATHER Solomon B. Freehof
QUESTION: The Talmud mentions the duties of a father to a son (first chapter of Kiddushin) and the duties of a son towards a | father. The clearest enumeration of these duties are in the Tosefta to the first chapter of Kiddushin. The question asked is the fol| lowing: Do these duties, or similar duties, apply also from the son to the grandfather and from the grandfather to the[grand]son? |(Asked by D. B., Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania .)
ANSWER: It is not definitely fixed in the aw that the respective duties of father to son and son to father apply also between grandson and grandfather. This indeterminacy is noticeable in the careful phrasing of Isserles in his notes to the Shulhan Arukh, Yoreh Deah | 240:24. He says:“Some say that the duties do not apply from grandson to grandfather but I do not agree with this opinion, except insofar as it is a man’s duty to honor his father more than his
grandfather.”
The“some say” refers to a great scholar who lived in Italy | acentury before Isserles , namely, Joseph Colon (the Maharik ) in his response, Root 30:2. The Maharik says that there is no such duty as honor due from the grandson to the grandfather; in fact, since a grandson may testify in court in a case involving his grandfather(which he may not do in a case involving his father), that proves that they are substantially not really kin, at least insofar as the duty to do honor is involved. As for the fact(he continues) that the grandson may say Kaddish for his grandfather, that proves very little since a man may say Kaddish for anyone who is dead. But Isserles in his own response(#118) says that the grandson says Kaddish for his grandfather, but, of course, the honor due to his father comes first; and in the responsum Isserles uses the same argument that you used to me when we spoke on this matter, that