The Rebellious Son’s Deeper Interpretation
The holy Zohar (Balak 197b), however, brings this matter as it was recorded in another place and at another time:
When Moshe Rabbeinu was in Heaven, writing the Torah from the mouth of the Holy One, blessed be He, he reached the passage of the ben sorer u’moreh.
When Moshe Rabbeinu heard this mitzvah, he turned to the Holy One, blessed be He, and said: Master of the World, I beg You—leave this passage out; do not write it. There is no possibility that this will ever be carried out.
No father will hand over his son to be put to death, for who can measure a father’s infinite compassion for his child? And a mother’s nature is to give her son everything good, even when he is unworthy.
The Zohar continues and reveals the deeper reason why Moshe did not want the passage of the ben sorer u’moreh to be written, for in his wisdom, Moshe saw from afar that the Jewish people would one day sin and become themselves like a “wayward and rebellious son.”
If this passage would be written, the Holy One, blessed be He, would judge the Jewish people in this way as well.
The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moshe: Moshe, write it. As much as you know, I know even more. On the contrary, this passage is a cornerstone and foundation for the rectification of the Jewish people.
At that moment, the Holy One, blessed be He, hinted to the Angel of the Torah3 that he must explain this mitzvah to Moshe.
The angel began to expound:
“If a man has” (Devarim 21:18)—this refers to the Holy One, blessed be He, as it says, “The L-rd is a Man of war” (Shemot 15:3).
“A son” (Devarim 21:18)—this refers to the Jewish people, as it says, “My firstborn son, Israel” (Shemot 4:22).
“Wayward and rebellious” (Devarim 21:18)—as it says, “For Israel has strayed like a wayward cow” (Hoshea 4:16).
“He does not listen to the voice of his father or the voice of his mother” (Devarim 21:18)—this refers to the Holy One, blessed be He, who is his “father,” and to Knesset Yisrael, the heavenly congregation of the Jewish people who are his “mother.”
“And they discipline him” (ibid.)—as it says, “The L-rd warned Israel and Yehudah through every prophet and every seer, saying: Return from your evil ways and observe My commandments and My statutes, according to the entire Torah that I commanded your fathers and that I sent to you through My servants the prophets” (II Kings 17:13).
“But he does not listen to them” (Devarim 21:18)—as it says, “But they did not listen, and they stiffened their necks like the necks of their fathers, who did not believe in the L-rd their G-d” (II Kings 17:14).
“His father and mother shall seize him and bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his place. And they shall say to the elders of his city: This son of ours is wayward and rebellious; he does not listen to our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard” (Devarim 21:19–20). Since they sinned, the Jewish people are taken and brought before a very lofty Divine level called Atika Kadisha, which is alluded to in the verse as “the elders of his city.”
They say to the elders of his city: What caused this son of ours to become wayward and rebellious? It was because he became a glutton and a drunkard among the other nations, as it says, “They mingled with the nations and learned their deeds” (Tehillim 106:35).
Through entering exile among the nations, their appetite for eating and drinking with them became intensified, and this led them to all manner of sin, in the mystery of one transgression drawing another after it, until they sank into the kelipot. This is what caused them to become like a wayward and rebellious son.4
“And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, and he shall die” (Devarim 21:21)—all the nations of the world will cast stones upon them. They will breach the walls of the Beit HaMikdash and destroy its towers. Yet despite all this, the Jewish people will remain forever.
The angel completed his explanation, and Moshe proceeded to write the passage of the ben sorer u’moreh in the Torah.
These words of the Zohar are both meaningful and surprising.
At first glance, the angel did not reveal anything new to Moshe Rabbeinu. As explained at the beginning of the Zohar’s words, Moshe already knew that the Jewish people would be punished, and for this reason he did not want to write this passage.
And even after the angel’s explanation, it remains clear that the Jewish people would be punished, that the nations would cast stones upon them, and that the Beit HaMikdash would be destroyed.
How, then, did the angel’s explanation calm Moshe Rabbeinu?
Before we answer this question, we will first introduce another matter.
Wellsprings of Wisdom
3. Targum Yonatan (Devarim 34:6) writes that there are four angels in Heaven known as “ministers of the Torah”: Matatron, Yofiel, Uriel, and Yefifyah. Here, the angel Yofiel explained this mitzvah to Moshe.
4. There are different levels within kelipah. Some forms of kelipah contain no good at all, while others contain some good mixed within them. The spiritual danger described here comes about when the Jewish people are drawn after the surrounding culture in exile and exposed to foreign negative influences that dull their spiritual sensitivity and draw them further away from holiness.
