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Your donation will be tax deductible in the US to the extent allowed by the IRS.
To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: dina@schechter.ac.il
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
Philadelphia, PA 19178-3566
Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
c/o Camp Ramah in Canada
3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: accounting@campramah.com
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
The philosophy of Halakhah examines the clash between morality and Halakhic norms. Prof. Ari Ackerman explores the realities of decision making and divine law in the case of the rebellious son as described in this week’s Torah portion: Ki Tetze.
One of the most contested and important questions in philosophy of halakhah is the relationship between halakhic norms and moral dictates. It has been debated whether halakhah is a closed and formalistic system in which moral considerations are not taken into account in halakhic decision making. Or can halakhah be viewed as recognizing an independent moral authority and consequently the posek is guided by his or her moral intuition when he or she adjudicates halakhic questions.
Scholars such as David Hartman, Moshe Halbertal and Avi Sagi argue for the latter. That is, they claim that although halakhah is divine law, if one inspects the history of halakhah, there are ample instances when moral considerations play a role in the shaping of halakhah. One prominent example appears in the Deuteronomy, chapter 21 regarding the laws of “the wayward and defiant son” (ben sorer u-moreh). We read there that a child that does not heed his father or mother is stoned to death by the men of the town.
This harsh punishment seems to us morally problematic on a number of levels. Firstly, what did the rebellious son do that warrants such an extreme punishment? Secondly, how can we allow for capital punishment for a minor and not allow for the chance that he will rehabilitate himself as he grows older?
But the clash between our moral intuitions and the Biblical law of rebellious son is not just a modern phenomenon. The moral quandary was also felt by the Talmudic sages who in chapter eight of Sanhedrin drastically reworked the law. They also seemed to be bothered by various features of this law and as a result rendering it unenforceable.
How do they do this? Firstly, through a series of highly creative interpretations of various terms in the Biblical passage, they create a series of conditions that must take place in order that the son be executed or punished whatsoever. Firstly, they limit the time that he can be liable to a short period of three months between him being a minor and before he is considered an adult. Secondly, they further restrict the prohibition to a son who eats raw meat and drinks Italian wine; what is more, this meat and wine must be stolen from the parents but not digested on their property. Thirdly, both parents must express their desire that their child be executed. But then the Talmud adds one last stipulation which is the most restrictive: “if his mother was not identical to his father in voice, appearance, and height, he does not become a stubborn and rebellious son” (Sanhedrin 71a). That is, the parents must look and sound exactly alike which is patently impossible.
What is more, the Talmudic sages where clearly aware of the fact that they had essentially neutralized a Biblical law. Consequently, they openly declare; “There has never been a stubborn and rebellious son and there never will be one in the future.” And the only reason that the law was included in the Bible was: “So that you may expound and receive reward” (Tosefta, Sanhedrin 11:6).
Despite their unwillingness to accept the law as it was formulated in the Bible, the sages clearly believed that the law was divinely revealed and obligated them. But they equally upheld the belief that their merciful God (el rahum ve-hanun) could not command a cruel or unjust law. So their solution was to render the law obsolete and thereby reconcile their commitment to the authority of the law with their moral intuitions and sense of justice.
SHAVUA TOV FROM SCHECHTER
image: Mark Dumont, Dennis the Menace Nose art, United States Air Force Museum
Prof. Ari Ackerman is the President of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies.
President Ackerman is Associate Professor for Jewish Philosophy and Jewish Education. Prior to his elevation to president, Ackerman held the (David) Golinkin Professor of TALI Jewish Education. He received his PhD in Jewish thought from Hebrew University and was a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton University. His most recent book is a Critical Edition of the Sermons of Zerahia Halevi Saladin (Beer Sheva University Press, 2013). Prof. Ackerman’s new book on creation and codification in the philosophy of Hasdai Crescas – Hasdai Crescas on Codification, Cosmology and Creation (Brill Press, 2022) is newly published. President Ackerman lives with his family in Jerusalem.
