This week’s Sedra goes into some detail as to what is to be done with a Ben Sorer Umoreh (the ‘wayward and rebellious son’). Chazal explain in great detail what exactly a Ben Sorer Umoreh has to do in order to be liable to the death penalty, how the parents must proceed with him, and why he deserves the death penalty. Yet, after going through every aspect of the issue in painstaking detail, Chazal inform us that there never was and never will be a true and real “Ben Sorer Umoreh”. The requirements for such a case to happen are defined so narrowly and precisely that its actual occurrence is a practical impossibility.  Chazal explain that the only reason there is a mitzvah of any sort in Ben Sorer Umoreh is so that we should be D’rosh Vekabel Sachar. This statement is generally understood to mean that this mitzvah’s main purpose is to allow us to be rewarded with the Torah study surrounding it. This leaves us with an obvious question: why was it the concept of the wayward son that was chosen as a non-operational Mitzvah?  Why did the Torah not choose some other abstract, theoretical mitzvah for the same purpose? Put somewhat differently, why did the Torah choose a case that can never happen to teach us….what?

Chazal tell us that the purpose of this Mitzva is D’rosh etc. While the word D’rosh can mean that we should expound upon this mitzvah, it can also have a different import. We find regarding the Churban (Destruction of the Temple) and Tzion that the Passuk says “Tzion Doresh EIn Lah” and Chazal tell us that it is evident from the use of the phrase “EIn lah” that there should be a “Doresh” – that there should be (but isn’t) someone who ‘seeks’ Tzion. In this case it is evident that “Doresh” means to seek.

Perhaps in our case as well D’rosh Vekabel Sachar means that if we seek out the messages of the Ben Sorer Umoreh we will be rewarded with very special lessons in Chinuch and with how to deal with wayward or even mildly disobedient children.

The lesson of D’rosh Vekabel Sachar is that in every word of Hashem’s Torah whether that word, phrase, or other component, appears more or less relevant, whether we immediately grasp the meaning, in each there are always very important lessons for our daily lives.

A very warm Good Shabbos, Rabbi Y. Dov Krakowski