This week’s parsha is called Kee Tetze which is translated ‘When you go’. (Click to listen/download)
It continues Moses final address to the Israelites before God ‘gathers him to his fathers’. The Torah reading for this portion is Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19. This portion contains 74 of the 613 commandments (as numbered by Maimonides).
This week’s haftorah is the fifth of a series of seven “Haftarot of Consolation.” These seven haftarot commence on the Shabbat following Tisha b’Av (the 9’th day of the month of Av on the Hebrew calendar) and continue until Rosh Hashanah.
Let’s read from the parsha:
Deu 21:18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them,
Deu 21:19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives,
Deu 21:20 and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’
Deu 21:21 Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
Based on FFOZ Weekly eDrash from 2011
The commandment of the rebellious son is one of the more difficult commandments of the Torah. It says that a stubborn, rebellious son who refuses to obey his parents and is given to gluttony and drunkenness is to be tried in a court of law and, if found guilty, put to death by stoning.
The Sages raise several objections to the plain reading of the text. They point out that the boy must be of an age of accountability, i.e. past puberty, yet he must still be considered a ward of his parents. This could only be a young teen. Furthermore, he must be guilty not only of disobedience, but also of gluttony and drunkenness. To be guilty of gluttony and drunkenness, it is supposed that he must have stolen to acquire the food and drink. In short, he is a remarkably reprehensible teen.
The Sages’ interpretation on the law added further stringencies that made it impossible for such a case to ever be tried in a court of law. Thus it was said, “There never has been a case of a ‘stubborn and rebellious son’ brought to trial and never will be.” (b.Sanhedrin 71a) Even without the Sages, we may reason that such a case would rarely go to trial because loving parents would hardly be able to testify against their own sons.
However, it is a law of the Torah. The study of Torah is the study of God. When God revealed Himself to us, He did not give us a systematic theology, creeds, recipes or diagrams. He gave us laws. Yet they are more than just laws intended to tidy up human society. They are actual pieces of godliness. Each commandment is a small revelation of God. More than just a rule for governing human behavior, the laws of Torah are a reflection of the Lawgiver.
Perhaps the import of the law of the stubborn and rebellious son is a warning to all parents. It is a reminder that we are responsible for bringing up our children in a godly manner. If we do not, their inevitable end—whether before the court on Earth or the court in Heaven—is our own responsibility. Our tendency is to diminish bad behavior, look the other way, and hope that it improves over time. The Torah warns us not to take that route. Instead, we should hear this commandment and fear, lest we allow our own children to walk in iniquity. The intent of the commandment is that “all Israel will hear of it and fear.” (Deuteronomy 21:21)
We also must be reminded through study of this commandment that we are all “stubborn and rebellious” sons and daughters, wayward at heart and disobedient to our Father. We have all merited the death sentence before the heavenly court. Yet in order that we might live, God has given His own son, His good and obedient Son, to face that death penalty on our behalf. To us, the sentence against the stubborn and rebellious teenager may seem unduly harsh. Yet it is no harsher than the justice that brought the Innocent One to the cross.
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