Q&A: Honoring Parents When It Involves a Prohibition
Honoring Parents When It Involves a Prohibition
Question
My mother is secular, unfortunately, and she buys non-kosher things.
Should I help her, given that the help would involve only a rabbinic prohibition while honoring parents is Torah-level,
or
“You shall keep My Sabbaths,” and what Rashi explains there: “The verse places Sabbath observance next to reverence for one’s father to say that even though I warned you about reverence for a father, if he tells you to desecrate the Sabbath, do not listen to him—and so too with all the other commandments.”
Answer
You definitely should help her. Both because such help is not a prohibition, and even if it were a prohibition, it is not at all clear that one should not help her (a secular person today is generally not considered a transgressor in that sense).
Discussion on Answer
In my opinion, yes.
So you mean it’s permitted to serve non-kosher food to a secular parent who wants it?