SELECTED REFORM RESPONSA
are sure that their motives are not selfish, but for the good of the parent, then it is their duty to reason with him until he consents, if only reluctantly. To insist that he leave the home over his strenuous objection would be wrong. It is their duty, as Isserles says,“to speak words of kindness to the heart of the father and to show the father that his intention is for his own good,” and to keep up this gentle persuasion until the father consents.
ADDENDUM: As a matter of fact, the legal literature does contain something analogous to the modern practice of sending a parent to an institution such as an old folks’ home. Maimonides (Hilt Mamrim 6:10, based upon the Talmudic incident of Rabbi Assi, Kiddushin 31b), says that if a parent has become insane and it is impossible for the child to take care of him, he may leave him to the care of others.
The Rabbi to that passage disagrees with Maimonides , but Joseph Caro defends Maimonides in his Bet Joseph to the Tur
(Yoreh Deah 240) and embodies this as a law in his own Shulhan Arukh(Yoreh Deah 240:10).
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