SELECTED REFORM RESPONSA
rael is a biblical precept and divine commandment equal to all others in the Torah (Sefer Hamitzvot, gloss to positive precept 4). Since honoring one’s parents and settling the Land of Israel are both mitzvot, does one of them take precedence? Rabbi Meir ben Baruch , the Maharam of Rothenburg (1215-1293), answered this question seven hundred years ago in the following responsum:
You have asked if a father may prevent his son from going on aliyah to Israel . Since it has been established that aliyah to the Land of Israel is a mitzvah, and each such mitzvah is followed by“I am the Lord,” which means that you should not obey your parent when he commands you to violate a mitzvah, because the honor due to God takes precedence(Responsa Maharam ben Barukh, no. 79).
The honor due one’s parents is not unlimited. Parents do not have to be obeyed when they demand that their child violate a Torah commandment.
The conflict between parents and children about aliyah continued throughout the centuries. Rabbi Moses ben Joseph Trani, known by his acronym, Mabit, was the rabbi of Safed in the sixteenth century. He received a question about a young man who had made a vow to go on aliyah and settle in the Galilee. His father and mother, however, did not allow him to go. The questioner asks: “Teach us, our Rabbi , if the vow is valid and binding, or may he be released from it.”
This family dissonance results from the above noted, seemingly irreconcilable conflict between two Torah command
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