פרשת כי תצא תשכ"ה - "לא יומתו אבות על בנים"

A few confused souls have inquired how it can be that Scripture asserts fathers must not be put to death ... whereas elsewhere it says “remembering the sins of the fathers ...” [Exodus 20:5], But their question is vacuous. Fathers must not be put to death is a commandment addressed to Israel, whereas “remembering the sins of the fathers” applies to the Rememberer, as I have already explained in its place [comment on Exodus 20:5].

ובנים לא יומתו על אבות. By the courts. This was spelled out in Kings II 14,6 ואת בני המכים לא המית ככתוב לא יומתו וגו', ”But he did not put to death the children of the assassins, in accordance with what is written in Deuteronomy 24,16.” While it is forbidden for human authorities to kill children on account of the sins of their father, G’d reserves the right for Himself to do so, as we know from Exodus 20,4 פוקד אבות על בנים, He requites the sins of the fathers to the children, if they continue in the evil footsteps of their fathers whose punishment G’d had suspended while hoping for their children to redeem their fathers by their exemplary conduct. This principle has been spelled out even more clearly in Ezekiel 18,2 where the prophet had been challenged by the exiles with the question: ‘if the parents ate unripe grapes, why should their children suffer from the resulting diarrhoea?’ They meant that seeing they had been exiled, rejected by their master, G’d, the laws of the Jewish religion should no longer apply to them. The thrust of our verse here is that the court does not have the right to use an innocent child as hostage for the crimes of his father in absentia..

The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers; every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

לא יומתו אבות על בנים FATHERS SHALL NOT BE PUT TO DEATH על בנים — i.e. by the evidence of their children. But if you say it means “for the sin of their children”, then it would be redundant for it goes on to state “every man shall be put to death for his own sin” (Sifrei Devarim 280:1; Sanhedrin 27b).

And it came to pass, as soon as the kingdom was established in his hand, that he slew his servants who had slain the king his father;

If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, that will not hearken to the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not hearken unto them;

Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God commanded thee; that thy days may be long, and that it may go well with thee, upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.