Dilemma within: To what extent does stoning apply? Where does it stop?
Dilemma within: Should a rebellious son be stoned? Why?
(18) 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;
(20) and they shall say unto the elders of his city: ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he doth not hearken to our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.’
Rashi explains that the punishment for such a minor crime should not be as severe as that of robbery
your explanation includes facts that are not in the rashi...
Ibn Ezra:סורר ומורה. כנגד השם וכנגד האבות אם היו יראי השם TRANSLATION:Stubborn and rebellious. Against God and against fathers if they fear God
Ibn Ezra Comment: This comment states that the act of rebellion translates to fear. Fear is what drives the child to be rebellious and stubborn. Rebellious children are also stubborn to try and assert dominance.-REREAD YOU MISUNDERSTOOD IBN EZRA
Rashi:סורר (from the root סור to deviate) means, one who deviates from the proper path of life.
Daat Zkenim:כי יהיה לאיש בן סורר ומורה, “if a man has a wayward son, etc.” the death penalty decreed here for what must appear to the reader as a relatively minor sin by a teenager, is understood as the Torah’s way to save this son from losing his share in the world to come, if he were allowed to continue in his lifestyle. This is how Rashi explains it. If you were to ask that at least he should not have to face a harsher death penalty than that administered for armed robbery, which is death by the sword, not death by stoning, the Torah wrote that he ignored both father and mother, a euphemism for this son cursing father and mother, a crime which carries the penalty of death by stoning. (Compare Leviticus 20:9where the wording of the Torah for cursing father or mother is: דמיו בו, “his blood will be upon him.” Whenever this expression occurs it refers to death by stoning.
Daat Zkenim is trying to say that killing the son for a relatively minor sin is the torah's way of saving the son from losing his share in the world to come by not being allowed to continue that lifestyle.
Sanhedrin 68b:FOR IT IS WRITTEN, IF A MAN HAVE A STUBBORN AND REBELLIOUS SON (Deuteronomy 21:18): ‘A SON’, BUT NOT A DAUGHTER;‘A SON’, BUT NOT A FULL-GROWN MAN.
This comment is saying that the stoning applies to males only. He states that the torah not refer to a son as a full grown man but rather an adolescent child.
Akeidat Yitzchak:The ben sorer umoreh, stubborn and rebellious gluttonous son described in Deuteronomy 21:18-21 though a thief by halachic definition, since he has stolen a small amount of meat and wine from his father, is punished as a glutton, not as a thief. His thievery had merely been a means to achieve his objective that of gratifying his appetites.
Akeidat Yitzchak is saying that the child s not punished as a theif but as a glutton or an extremely greedy eater. He has stolen to achieve his appetite. He is a theif by halachic definition, but is merely a gluttonous and wayward son.
I chose these commentators because they look at the essential question from different perspectives and help us better learn the answer to these question
To what extent does stoning apply?
Is stoning applicable to modern punishment methods?
This source sheet helps explain the questions listed on the top of the page. The questions are to what extent does stoning apply to the rebellious child; Should a rebellious child be stoned and why; The commentators I used to help explain these verses are Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Daat Zkenim, Sanhedrin, and Akeidat Yitzchak. I chose these commentators because they look at the essential question from different perspectives and help us better learn the answer to these questions. Ibn Ezra gives us the definition of the words used to describe the wayward son; Daat Zkenim is rationalizing the reasoning for the stoning itself; Sanhedrin tells us who the torah was directing this towards; Rashi questions the punishment; Akeidat Yitzchak gives an example of the wayward son's acts and what they truly mean. The comments made by these rabbis help answer the major questions that I highlighted in these verses