Study Kiddushin folio 31A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
שמשדלתו בדברים, לפיכך הקדים הקדוש ברוך הוא כיבוד אב לכיבוד אם. וגלוי וידוע לפני מי שאמר והיה העולם שהבן מתיירא מאביו יותר מאמו, מפני שמלמדו תורה, לפיכך הקדים הקדוש ברוך הוא מורא האם למורא האב.
she persuades him with many statements of encouragement and does not treat him harshly. Therefore, in the mitzva of: “Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:11), God preceded the mention of the honor due one’s father before mentioning the honor due one’s mother. The verse emphasizes the duty that does not come naturally. Similarly, it is revealed and known before the One Who spoke and the world came into being that a son fears his father more than his mother, because his father teaches him Torah, and consequently he is strict with him. Therefore, in the verse: “A man should fear his mother and his father” (Leviticus 19:3), God preceded the mention of fear of the mother before the mention of fear of the father.
תני תנא קמיה דרב נחמן: בזמן שאדם מצער את אביו ואת אמו אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא: יפה עשיתי שלא דרתי ביניהם, שאלמלי דרתי ביניהם, ציערוני. אמר רבי יצחק: כל העובר עבירה בסתר – כאילו דוחק רגלי שכינה. שנאמר: ״כה אמר ה׳ השמים כסאי והארץ הדם רגלי״.
A tanna taught a baraita before Rav Naḥman: When a person causes his father and mother suffering, God says: I did well in not residence among them, for if I had dwelled among them they would have caused Me suffering as well, as it were. R' Yitzḥak says: Anyone who transgresses in private, it is considered as though he is pushing away the feet of the Shekhina, i.e., he distances God from him, so to speak. As it is stated: “So says YHWH: The heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool” (Isaiah 66:1). When someone sins in secret, he demonstrates that he thinks God is absent from that place, and it is as though he pushes His feet away from the earth.