honor you father and mother

HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER SO THAT YOU MAY PROLONG YOUR DAYS ON THE LAND THAT THE LORD, YOUR GOD, IS GIVING YOU:

Gnomen 1    The Commandment of honoring one’s father and mother is extremely ancient. We have received it as being part of the 7 Commandments of the children of Noah written on Tablets that were taken by Noah into the ark. Thus the Commandment goes back to the ancient tradition of Hhanoch and afterwards Methuselah and Noah received it. In the New True Kabbalah of the Final Redemption certain ‘secrets’ are revealed if they are pertinent to a deeper understanding of questions concerning the Final Signs. We received that the 7 commandments, which were later known in tradition as the 7 commandments of the children of Noah were taken by Noah in the form of 2 stone tablets * on which they were written. See Tablet 1, Table of 7 commandments of the children of Noah.

* on the first night of the tragic death of Beniamino Perico, he came to me in a vision in the Tent, told me to come with him and took me to Mount Arrarat and showed me the two tablets of the 7 commandments. About a month later, in the New Sanctity, I received the form of these commandments as they would be read and understood by us in a classical Hebrew version -

Gnomen 2   The Commandment of honoring father and mother was the great basis of a large category of formal social behavior which had an unwritten stamp of abiding law in the societies of the world before the Torah. The general name of this category is ‘derech eretz’ , ‘the way of the land’. These laws were first of all the laws of proper respect and the basis of said respect was that of children to their parents and from this it extends to elders in general and then to other categories. It is said in tradition that before the Torah was given at Sinai, the world subsisted on the merit of derech eretz.

Gnomen 3   For without the revelation of God’s law at Sinai what was there in the world, in the way of mankind’s deeds, that had standing enough before the Creator to justify a judgment of its continuation? We see, indeed, that before the universal flood, it was the very opposite of derech eretz that finally caused the judgment of its discontinuation, as it states ‘for every flesh has corrupted its way on the land’. It began by the lack of respect of one person for another. This led to stealing wives from other men. This led to such an unchained sex desire that they searched for pleasure in unnatural sex, at first with their wives from the back side, then with other men and then with children and then with animals. In the end, we know from tradition, the decree of destruction fell also on the animals. What had they done to deserve it?

Gnomen 4   One cannot say that they properly deserved it but the Midrash explains that the people had had so many sexual relations with all kinds of animals, that the animals themselves no longer desired natural sex with their own species. Mankind’s corruption against nature was so total that even the poor innocent animals had lost their instinct for their natural needs and sought their pleasures in non-instinctive ways. It was not without reason that the Creator decreed total destruction on all mankind, the predelected of His Creation.

Gnomen 5   Only Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord, God, because only he had maintained the derech eretz loved by God and which he had received from Methuselah who had received it from the individual forebears of the ancient tradition which in essence begins with Adam, our first father, himself. Noah in his attributes was the exact opposite of those of the generation of the flood. Noah was ‘tamim’ with God, he lived in the simplicity of his faith. He did not marry until he was 500 years old (to Na’ama who was 100 years older than he). The Sages exclaim that until then Noah ‘cavash et yitzro’ he ‘overcame his inclination’ until he was commanded to take a wife for the sake of bringing children as part of preparing for the Flood. Why had Noah not married? He was afraid to bring children into the world in that generation because there existed only iniquity and abominable distortions of nature on every side. Rather than see any child of his become as one of them, he preferred to stay unmarried. In truth, his self inflicted chastity was a necessary balance to the search for unnatural pleasures of that entire generation.

Gnomen 6   Indeed, notwithstanding Noah’s marrying to a righteous woman as commanded, and notwithstanding the education, in the fear of God, that he gave his children, part of the heat of their sin did not escape one of his children, Cam. It had been forbidden by God, upon entering the ark, for Noah, Jephet, Shem and Cam, to have intimate relations with their wife until the decree would be ended and they would leave the ark. Cam (which is Hham in Hebrew meaning ‘hot’) was the only one who did not obey. Then, as known, when Noah, after the flood got drunk one day, Cam did not resist from the unnatural sexual pleasure in looking at the nudity of his own father. It is explained in tradition that Ham did not simply look at his father’s nudity but had sexual relations with him. One is at first stunned by this affirmation. How did a son of Noah come to such perversity? But something of the influence of the forbidden heat of that generation did not escape Hham whose nature was hotter than that of his brothers, reason for which the Torah calls him Hham.

Gnomen 7   Japhet and Shem, however, had received the laws of derech eretz from their father and each one,L according to his nature,  had the fear of God in his heart. When Hham came out of his father’s tent, boasting of the delicious sexual tastes of Noah’s nudity, Shem and Japhet became extremely afraid for the offense before God that had taken place. It was, of course, not necessary that the Torah explain in detail what Hham did inside the tent; it was enough to write ‘and Hham saw the nudity of his father’. From this we learn that also then Noah had received and had taught the laws of derech eretz and that Shem and Japhet had received those laws. With great fear they entered their father’s tent, walking backwards so as not to see his nudity; they covered him with a blanket, being extremely careful not to look at his nakedness. This act was loved before God and they received great blessings from Noah for the derech eretz that they had maintained.

Gnomen 8   Thus we see that when the Tradition declares that the world stood on the merit of the laws of derech eretz before the Torah was given to Israel, it is teaching us an essential lesson in the ways loved by God. The merit of derech eretz is no small thing; the world itself stood on its merit before the Torah was given. Nor did it become obsolete with the coming of the Torah, for the entire tradition of derech eretz which existed previously entered and was sanctified in the law of the Torah. The legacy of tradition is profound in the resolution that ‘derech eretz’ came before the Torah’ and that ‘without derech eretz there is no Torah’, because ‘the Torah without derech eretz is not Torah’. Without the application of proper and respectful behaviour with all people, there is no Torah. Even a rabbinical Sage who has no derech eretz is not to be shown respect and the prayer shawl that he wears is less than an ass’ saddle.

Gnomen 9  For 7 years the Tzadik Haim taught me the Holy Torah of Moses, our teacher. In the 6 remaining years, the holy Tzadik, Head of the 36 Hidden Tzadikim, taught me to walk in the light and the force of the sanctity given me. In all thirteen years the teaching of the Teacher, Haim, was the all essential importance of the true derech eretz loved by God and beneficial to all. Respect for all people, race, creed or color. Respect for one’s parents. Respect for one’s teachers. Respect for elders. Respectable modes of speech with all people. The sanctified respect for God’s Name and for the Torah and for the Prophets and for the tradition of the Sages of Israel. “You must at first become an expert master of derech eretz before any sanctity will reside in you; at first derech eretz and then the rest”,  was the Tzadik’s lesson to me time and time again with renewed force and meaning at every repetition.

Gnomen 10   The disrespect for parents and for elders represents the discontinuity of the past and rejects it. Historical documents of many epochs tell of elders desperately lamenting the evil signs of their times seen clearly in the disrespect of young people to their elders. Wherever the society entered into a phase of relative discontinuity, whether for new enemies or new kings or new religious fervor or new business prospectives or, as in modern times, the sociological discontinuity due to the jumps of technological progress, there is a breakaway from the past and with that breakaway there is a discontinuity of the derech eretz that was.

Gnomen 11  We, however, are all the descendants of Abraham, our father. We are all believers in the Redemption from Egypt and in the Revelation at Sinai. We must all be seekers of the wisdom of the past. If the generational evils of all past history must be known so as to avoid them, yet all that which is part of the true wisdom of God’s teachings to mankind must be sought after as one must seek after wisdom itself, so as to gain a deeper understanding of what is loved by the Amighty Creator of the Universe and that which is called ‘pleasurable’ before Him. Not all may delve into the detailed wisdom of the Law of God, but all may seek to know what is loved before Him and all may be rewarded with understanding, if their hearts are pure. So has the Teacher of Life, Haim, sent it to us in a dream, to an innocent, unknowing Catholic girl in south Italy, in the voice of a 4 year old child ‘Faith is in the heart of every person and it is measured (manifested) in one’s behaviour with other people’. *

* see Tablet 1 , 30 Passes -

Gnomen 12  One’s behaviour with others, derech eretz, is the great measuring-rod of the faith. One must receive every person openly and with a pleasant smile. One must take care to do every possible good action towards one’s father and mother. One must be careful to speak respectfully with them, always, and never to raise one’s voice with them and to do their bidding with pleasure and to seek their blessing. All these actions are loved before God and He lengthens the joy of one’s days in view of them. If you are sitting and your father or mother walked into the room and you stand up in a sign of respect, you have fulfilled a loving action before your parent and before God. Do not lose it for the weakening fear of what others might think or say.

Gnomen 13    In classical times, the words of one’s father and the words of one’s mother were equal to sacred commandments, not only in the Jewish world but also in the heathen world, and to disobey their wishes was considered a great personal sin. In the heathen world, however, this sacred honor given to father’s and mother’s commands, although true to derech eretz, had also the negative aspect of not allowing for a breakaway from heathen ways which were replete with idolatry and with magic practices and with many other heathen customs certainly not loved by God. This fact thus represents an historical dilemma, in that the beloved derech eretz of honoring one’s parents did not distinguish the priority of God when the parents’ dictums were contrary to the will of God. This would not have been the case if the 7 Commandments to the children of Noah, which include the pure monotheistic faith in God Almighty and the prohibition of serving other gods, had been received and applied, but, unfortunately, it was not received.

Gnomen 14  This historical dilemma becomes a central theme in the very essential opening Revelation of God to Abraham ‘Get you out of your land and out of the place of your birth and out of your father’s house, and go to the place that I shall show you’. That was the necessary historical correction to that negative aspect of the honor to parents that did not allow people to break away from idolatry and return to the true God and Creator of the world. The line must be drawn: you must ‘obey’ your parents concerning all things (where it is possible and feasible), but you must not obey them if they command you to do that which is against the Commandment of God. The Commandment of the Lord, our God, comes first because He is the Creator of us all.

Gnomen 15   The history of the Redemption begins with Abraham, our father, and it is in this prospective that this extremely well-known first commandment of God to Abraham must be understood. Without that force of breaking away from the false doctrines of parents, there could be no Redemption. All would be closed into the past errors forever. In all other questions Abraham, our father, showed complete respect to his father Terah, but concerning his father’s idolatry Abraham spoke the truth and explained his father’s error. It is said in tradition that Terah eventually repented from all idolatry and took on Abraham’s faith in the One Living God.

Gnomen 16  This concept was later epitomized within the framework of the Ten Commandments themselves. Honor your father and your mother is the fifth commandment. This comes to teach that there are commandments which come before the honoring of father and mother; if father or mother tell you not to believe in the God who redeemed Israel from Egypt, from the house of slavery, do not follow their teaching; if they tell you to serve other gods or to do any form of idolatry, do not obey them; if they urge you to take God’s Name in vain, do not listen to them; if you are commanded in the Sabbath and they tell you to profane the Sabbath, do not hearken unto their words. In all these the Commandment of God comes before the desires of parents. In all else, however, you must show great respect and love for them and do everything possible to help them, for they have brought you into the world, and it is loved before God that you demonstrate every kind of gratitude to them and that you fulfill the commandment of honoring your father and your mother.

Gnomen 17    Obviously there is a difference between Abraham in relation to his father and between Ishmael and Isaac in relation to Abraham. Both, Ishmael and Isaac,  knew that their father was the chosen servant of God, blessed by Him and commanded to fulfill a marvelous and universal purpose in the world. Also Abraham, our father, had received the laws of derech eretz when he was still very young in the hidden school of Shem and Ever where he studied the Commandments of God, as they had been passed down directly from Shem, the son of Noah. That hidden school was responsible for safe-guarding the sanctity of the true Commandments of God in conformity with the 7 Commandments to the children of Noah. That tradition of derech eretz was handed down to Ishmael and to Isaac and there are elements of it still found today among the true Bedouin tribes of the desert, but there are also elements of that tradition in all Islamic society. In Isaac that tradition became part of the sanctified tradition of derech eretz for Israel.

Gnomen 18  The Teacher, Haim, taught me the high level of derech eretz of the Yemenite Jews. I have explained that the roots of the tradition of the Yemenite Sages go back to Jerusalem, some 20 years before the destruction of the First Temple, and that, not having been part of that harsh and bitter period of the destruction and of forced-exile, they maintained the very high level of sanctity, as it was to those hachamim, even if relatively very few, who lived in the light of the God of Israel with all their heart and soul and who partook of the sanctity of the First Temple and knew its miraculous powers. All these they brought with them to Yemen , together with the beloved ways of derech eretz which were of another quality of a totally higher level compared to the tradition that was re-pieced together at the time of Ezra and Nehhemiah. The destruction and exile was an unimaginably exasperating and anguished time which totally destroyed the previous way of life. This is the necessary introductive comprehension of the value of the Yemenite Tradition of which the Tzadik, Head of the 36 Hidden Tzadikim and the chosen Final Goel, Haim, was heir.

Gnomen 19  In Yemen, the respect of children to parents and the respect of the wife to her husband were on an extremely elevated level, ways very much loved by God, loving and respectful ways which have their roots in the ‘loving ways’ of the sanctity given at Sinai, in the tradition of the humility of Moses, our teacher. I make not short of sentence cadence to help you in gaining the slowness of thought required to perceive the sanctity of the subject at hand. Even if one measure of a thousand measures might I myself perceive of the beloved elevation of the Yemenite derech eretz and the richness of God’s loving-kindness to which it is recipient, I am yet overjoyed and with a grateful heart for the knowledge and application of that one measure. Its elevation derives from Sinai. Its humility derives from Moses, our teacher. Its residing place was in the oral tradition in the houses of individual sages and persons fearful of God, from Sinai and until it reached those sages of Jerusalem who eventually became the sages of Yemen. I had, thank God Almighty, the immense privilege of learning of it directly from the Tzadik, Haim, heir to that tradition.

TASTES of LIFE:

Gnomen 20   Derech eretz in the house and the respect to parents in general are the fruits of the respect shown by the wife to her husband. For the children are more with the mother and they imitate her in relation to their father. In Yemen children did not raise their heads before their parents but kept their heads down below the eyes of the father or mother. This they learned from their mother from their earliest moments of consciousness, because a wife always held her head down before her husband. So too the wife did not speak to her husband without taking his permission to speak and the children learned to do the same for both father and mother. This is essential for understanding that the total non-state of derech eretz and the despicable disrespect of children shown to parents in the world of this Fourth Generation is the result of woman’s total breakaway from derech eretz towards their husbands.

Gnomen 21  In the true laws of derech eretz also the wife is shown great respect by the husband, as well as by the children, but the respect for the husband comes first, as it is in creation. Man was created directly by God and the woman was formed from him. In the hierarchy of creation, man is the essence and woman is the completion. She is thus second to man but man is not complete without her and only together do they become mankind. Thus in the true, received derech eretz of antiquity, it is basic and essential that, first of all, the wife demonstrate respect and honor to her husband. This corresponds to the creation loved by God the Creator and it is the true key in educating children in the proper respect and honor to their parents.

Gnomen 22    Although it is difficult to approach this subject during this Fourth Generation which is a 180 decrees on the opposite pole, the woman is up and man is down, the woman is strong and man is weak, the woman has determination and man is a marsh-mellow, the woman interests herself in intelligent matters and the man watches the ball-game etc.,  ----       I am obligated to inform that this state of society will not remain. Nature is out in the Fourth Generation, but nature also punishes the Fourth Generation as it springs back to the true measures of nature, to be loved and enjoyed by the generations of the Final Redemption after the Fourth Generation. But who can maintain the equilibrium of the opposites and of their diametrically opposite reasoning of every aspect of the Fourth Generation and remain in his sanity! Only he whose Fear of God is above all contradiction. After the Fourth Generation, the wheel of nature will begin its new cycle, quickly returning to 360 decrees and entering into the New Cycle of Nature, as it was created.

Gnomen 23   As the Third and Final Redemption continues on to bring the world through its marvelous phases of progression in all senses in the coming generations of the Final Redemption, at the same time, in that which pertains to nature, it comes back to the world and the world comes back to it. The return to nature is also a positive regression into previous, past states of nature as it was in antiquity. In that positive regression also many of the laws of derech eretz will fall back into use because the laws of derech eretz go hand in hand with nature. If nature is a husband unto those that love it, derech eretz is the wife who completes her husband with the finer sensibilities of mankind in its regards.

Gnomen 24   Derech eretz is also the love of nature and the dealing with nature in ways that are pleasing before God and beneficial to mankind. In this sense the generations of the Final Redemption also progress towards the Original Garden where, if not for the sake of 6000 years of world history having to be passed in order to merit to it again, all had been in perfect harmony, the soul, the stars, the body of man, the nature of the animals and the trees and plants; all functioned together in perfect harmony until the time came to leave the womb of creation and to learn what the world was all about. Derech eretz has its roots in the pleasant and harmonious ways of the Original Garden of Pleasure. So must we seek the beloved ways of derech eretz and take them up again, even if history has left us estranged to the true respect for our parents and for elders and for our teachers and for all people.

Gnomen 25   Look at the person with whom you are speaking in the face. Even if you hold your head slightly downwards, be within the vision of that person’s eyes. For it is incorrect to speak and not to look at the person to whom your speaking as it is incorrect not to look at the person who is speaking to you. It is essential to teach this to children at the earliest possible age so that it becomes a good habit defined for the child. The good habits of derech ererz should be defined for and by the child, for once he does such and he or she understands as well that it is proper to do such and not the opposite, he will never forget it, as it states, ‘Teach a child according to his way, even when he becomes old, he will not abandon it’.

Gnomen 26   With God’s help I will yet formulate 1 or 2 Tables concerning the derech eretz in one’s country, derech eretz with teachers, derech eretz of the table and derech eretz of sacred things. Here, in the heart of 30 Passes,  we have explained the background of the antiquity of derech eretz, the sanctification of derech eretz by way of the Torah and the importance of derech eretz in serving God in the pleasant ways among people loved by Him. More than laws, derech eretz has to do with a ‘way’ of life. The respectful manners and proper behaviour, once so famous in England and considered their great heredity, for example, might be classified as English derech eretz. The manners taught by them were in all aspects of normal life, in speaking to people, in answering in the proper respectful manner, manners at the table, manners in speaking and obeying parents as well as the English respect for the Royal Family. In Asiatic countries such as Japan and China, the very formalized and often complicated derech eretz is enmeshed into the entire social, linguistic and religious system of living one’s life. Their languages are replete with fine differentiations that correspond to the application of the proper derech eretz according to the required form for each situation. Indeed every country that has its roots in antiquity has evolved its own code of derech eretz. Aside from this I have obtained that the sanctified derech eretz of the Yemenite Jews is an important remnant of the true ways loved by the God of Israel. In Yemen, the essence was love and fear of God, love of the Torah, love of nature and derech eretz encompassing and permeating them all.

Gnomen 27   The Tzadik, Haim, taught that the Almighty, is, so to speak, more ‘sensitive’ towards the honor of one person to another than to His Own Honor. For concerning His Own Honor, people may claim that they are flesh and blood of limited understanding, but concerning respect for others, people are on the same level. The Tzadik also explained that, unfortunately, there have always been a large number of ‘very religious’ people of all creeds who believe that they are respectful to God and therefore they can ‘afford’ to be disrespectful to other people. Unfortunately, this is one of the great errors that the lack of true guides has fostered on most religious fronts. Such persons are ‘fooled’ inside themselves by the subtle arrogance of thinking oneself important because of his faith and his service to God. Instead of being humbled by the privilege and the good fortune to have faith and to be given the occasion to serve God, such a person believes himself something special for whatever he does. This inner blindness does not allow him to see the foolish contradiction of being respectful to God and disrespectful to people. The number of religious people who fall into this trap is extremely large, aside from all religious ‘fanatics’ who are invariably in this class.

Gnomen 28    We must again mention the important sign received ‘faith is in the heart of every person and it manifests itself in one’s behaviour with others’. One can fool himself but he cannot fool God. If one’s faith is true, then also his behaviour with all other people will be just and with loving-kindness. If one’s behaviour with others is disrespectful, crass, unsmiling, dishonest, insincere, uncharitable etc. etc., this is the proof that his faith is not the true faith loved by God Almighty. It is clearly exposed here that derech eretz is the measuring rod of faith. Even the prayers of that ‘religious person’ are not accepted before God, if he or she has no derech eretz or is not just with all people. For all people are His creations that He loves and it is desired before Him that there be reciprocal respect for all. Derech eretz is the Key to finding the true faith loved by God.

Gnomen 29    It was the desire of Jesus to bring to the people of Israel a very high form of derech eretz, with God and with all people. The situation of that generation, however, did not allow for derech eretz. We find that even Yeshua himself did not have the measurement of answering his mother with derech eretz; the tragic signs upon him came first in that moment. Derech eretz was totally lacking in Israel in that low epoch; all the opposite of what true derech eretz is about was found in the priests and the Pharisees of Yeshua’s time. There did exist false and hypocritical derech eretz which is much worse than no derech eretz at all. Jesus, however, had been through the School of the Essenes where a higher derech eretz reigned. So too his teachings have in them universalistic concepts of the true brotherhood and sisterhood that mankind should be. It is most probably the force of the concepts of derech eretz in a universal context that was the true moral force behind Christianity’s enormous extension. *

* see the question of the head of Esau that merited to be buried in the Machpelah because of the deretzch ere that he had always maintained before his parents Isaac and Rebecca -

Gnomen 30    The two countries of the world today where, more than other countries, derech eretz must be re-learned and reinstated and inculcated at every level of education are the United States and the State of Israel. When these two countries understand, love and practice derech eretz, the Redemption will descend on the world.

Bread of the Donkey dressed as a Lion: (dream 698) - Deborah dreamed (Shavuot 5750 - 1990 -Beersheva) that Peretz, Paolo and she walked together with many people who came from all parts of the world to see the Third Temple. It was evening; the Third Temple was a modern construction with a circular form; it had high and thick walls of desert-sand colour; its large roof was overlapping and on it were seven circles; close to the circles were lights that illuminated each circle, sending lights into the sky. Peretz, Paolo and Deborah met a pupil of the Yeshiva connected to the Temple. This pupil spoke about the rabbis who taught in the School. He explained that they were all dressed normally and were without beards. He emphasised the fact that the pupils were taught foremost to have respect for every person among others and among themselves. One of the rabbis, very young and with perfect derech eretz spoke to them.

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