Honoring One's Father and Mother
69. If parents live abroad, a son is permitted to leave the Land of Israel[1] to visit and help them.
70. In a dispute requiring court intervention, the plaintiff goes to the place where the person responsible for the incident lives. However, if a son is involved in a lawsuit with his father, he must go to the beit din in his father's town, even if the father is the plaintiff. *** When Chen was born, his parents were already elderly. At 21, he began working at his father's publishing house. Thanks to his talent and energy, the business flourished. Chen suggested that his father expand the premises and buy new equipment, but his father did not support the idea, being someone accustomed to making do with what he had and not seeking more. Chen decided to keep going, bought new equipment with his own money, and opened several more branches in town. After that, the company's income increased considerably.
This year, over the past few months, the number of orders had increased so much that the strain of the work made his father ill. He began expressing his dissatisfaction and blaming his son for what was happening. “Why do we need so many clients? I worked peacefully for years and never had any problems. What have you gotten us into?!” he would say. After some time, his father suggested that Chen leave the job and find another position. Chen knew that it was only thanks to him that the company had established its reputation and entered the broader market, and he also remembered very well that his new equipment was generating most of the income. His father's proposal therefore seemed utterly unfair to him. But since his father insisted, they had to go to court.
In this case, the son is obligated to go to the beit din his father chooses, and Chen is also required to show great patience and composure during the court proceedings. Although Chen is in a legal dispute with someone who, in his view, has acted unfairly, he must always remember that this is his own father and speak of him with due respect.
[1] One may not leave the Land of Israel without a valid reason; visiting one's parents is one such reason.