You don't have to read all of this...I am just posting some thoughts on the commandment to love and honor your parents that I had after last weeks ask JTF.
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I was thinking about the commandment to honor your parents and it hit me what a doofis I was.
I just wanted to add that I love my father and mother a lot and I would never want to be anyone else's son other than theirs.
I thank G-d I was born to them because I am Jewish.
My point was mostly that I disliked being around my parents 99% of the time when they were married, but now, individually, I actually like them a lot intellectually.
My dad has the wit, charm and subtlety of a funny rabbi...except he is a professor at a major university were managing politically correct agendas has to be a supreme artform. The students and faculty are so delicate in their racial and sexist ideas that over the years he got very good at wearing politically correct masks and using light, non-insulting humor.
He was hated by feminazis when the feminist revolution was going on because he stood up for guys when the Feminazis were claiming something absurd like 1 in 2 women would be date-raped. He even had feminists picketing his work at one point.
He is also handsome has a very laid back personality, is funny, not materialistic, and is very generous, almost to a fault...Young women half his age want him even though he is not wealthy
It does disturb me that he travelled to Germany, but university professors are invited to all sorts of conferences around the world and it is based on social work. That is a big topic in Sweden, Norway and stuff because of their healthcare system and he is an expert. Probably 75% of the conferences in his area of work take place in Europe.
True, he doesn't have much zeal for Israel or Judaism, but I am almost certain when he hears some sane viewpoints that offer good answers, like the ones I am learning, he will take some interest...
My mom is very intelligent too.
She is outspoken in exposing corruption in city politics and is often the lone voice of dissent, and has successfully put corrupt, backroom-dealmaking politicians to shame in the local media. She totally reemed them and left them basically speechless.
If she were in Israel, she would be the person publishing and exposing the corruption and the payoffs of the politicians (with documented paperwork), even if the rest of the liberals were screaming at her.
She really doesn't care what they think and makes fun of the liberals out here in the Bay Area. She was the only right-wing, non-corrupt person in local politics a few years ago. If she ever becames a Zionist, she will be a force to be reckoned with.