Two brothers hated each other. Their father, growing old, asked each of them privately why. The elder said he did not know the reason — only that the hatred was so deep he would gladly drink a cup of his brother's blood. The younger said he had no hatred at all; he loved his brother without reservation.
The father, afraid for the safety of the innocent son, advised him to leave town. The young man obeyed. He traveled to a distant country and arrived at a walled city late at night, after its gates had been locked. He knocked. To his astonishment the gates were flung open and the nobles of the city greeted him as king.
He thought they were mocking him. They explained: their king had just died without an heir. To settle the disputes among the great families, the council had agreed that whoever knocked first at the city gates that night would be crowned. He had been the first. He was now their sovereign.
Years later the young king wanted to see his parents. He issued a threat of invasion against his own homeland to force a diplomatic visit. The peace-loving king of the homeland sent an embassy — but all his officers refused the dangerous mission. A lot was drawn among the Jews of the country, and it fell on an old man — who turned out to be the king's own father. The father, being frail, sent his son, the elder brother, in his place.
The elder brother arrived and the young king recognized him immediately. Instead of revenge, the king rebuked him for his unreasonable hatred and sent him home with a message: the father himself must come in person, or no peace would be granted. The old man came. The son told him the whole story. They all lived together the rest of their days in reconciled joy.
Gaster's Exempla of the Rabbis (1924, No. 366, from Codex Gaster 130) preserves this as a parable of the fifth commandment (Exodus 20:12). The younger son's reward — a crown, a father's embrace, and a brother's rebuke delivered in mercy — all flowed from one simple act: obeying his father's voice when he was told to leave home. Kibbud av va-em is the ladder on which fortune climbs.