The past Shabbat we read the Ten Commandments. The following is a Talmudic story, from which we can see the great importance and value of the Commandment to honor parents.

The Talmudic sage Rabbi Yehoshua ben Alim was a very learned and wise man. He was always curious to know who will be his partner in the World-to-Come. He prayed that it be revealed to him who his partner in the World-to-Come will be. He was told in a dream, "Naness the butcher will be your partner in Gan Eden (World-to-Come)."

Rabbi Yehoshua was astonished; "After spending all my time studying and teaching the Torah, I will share Gan Eden with a simple butcher?" he thought to himself. "I must find this Naness and see what kind of person he is."

Rabbi Yehoshua went from village to village and from city to city asking for Naness the butcher. Finally he came to a town where there was a butcher by that name.

The people couldn't understand why the great Talmudic sage, Rabbi Yehoshua, was so interested in meeting the butcher. "Rabbi, he is an ignorant man," the townspeople said.

"I would like to see him anyway," replied Rabbi Yehoshua. Naness too, couldn't understand why the sage was interested in meeting him.

When they met, Naness asked Rabbi Yehoshua, "Why did you bother to come all the way here to see a simple person like me?"

Ignoring the question, Rabbi Yehoshua said to Naness, "Tell me, what special good deeds have you done?".

"I am a very simple man," answered Naness. “I don’t posses any Torah knowledge, or any worldly knowledge; I cannot think of anything special that I have accomplished. The only thing I can think of is that I have very old parents who are weak and can't do anything for themselves. Everyday I visit them, wash them, dress them, and feed them."

Rabbi Yehoshua kissed Naness on the forehead and said, "In that case, I consider myself lucky to be your partner in Gan Eden!"

Many years ago a young man left his shtetel in Poland and came to America. He came from a very religious home in Poland, but as he succeeded in business, he stopped keeping Shabbat. He didn’t forget his poor parents back home and sent them money regularly. His father, knowing that his son works on Shabbat, was hesitant to accept the money and asked his rabbi what to do. The rabbi said to him, “Sure you should accept his help. You are troubled that your son doesn’t observe the Shabbat, now you want to take away from him also the mitzvah of honoring his parents?! Accept his help and help him fulfill the commandment of honoring parents!”