1 Stubborn and Rebellious Son Daniel J.H. Greenwood - 3/14/05 original source selection by Mark Richter Translations, notes and questions by Daniel JH Greenwood Primary Sources: 1. DEUTERONOMY, 21, especially verses 10-23 Study Questions follow the first source 2. SIFRE DEUTERONOMY, Piskot 211-219 3. MISHNAH SANHEDRIN, Ch. 8 4. TOSEFTA SANHEDRIN, 11:6 5. TALMUD (BABYLONIAN), Sanhedrin, 68b-69a, 71a 6. MAIMONIDES (RABBI MOSHE BEN MAIMON -- THE RAMBAM), MISHNEH TORAH, Rebels, Ch. 7 7. General Laws and Liberties of the Massachusetts Colony (1672), reprinted from JUVENILE OFFENDERS FOR A THOUSAND YEARS (ed. Wiley B. Sanders) Note to translations of the commentaries: These are my translations, and all errors are mine. The Hebrew is terse and often ambiguous and I am not an expert in either the language or the texts, so other interpretations are always possible. I have checked my translations against standard published ones in the hope of catching at least egregious errors. The commentaries often begin with linguistic oddities or by attributing significance to repeated uses of the same word in different contexts or different senses. I’ve tried to convey this in the English by translating key Hebrew words (such as rashut) with the same English word or with transliterations even when the result is awkward. For the same reason, I’ve quoted my English translation of the Torah passages even when the commentators clearly understand the Hebrew differently. The original has only the most minimal punctuation. Sentence divisions, paragraphing and emphases (indicated by bold type face) are all mine. Square brackets [] indicate my additions to the text, usually to add context that would be obvious to an educated reader of the original or to clarify the range of ambiguity in the original. Italics indicate transliterations, often of repeated words.2 1. Deuteronomy 21:10–23 (Parashat Ki Titzay) (translation based on Fox; mistakes are mine) 10 When [or if] you go out to war on your enemies and ADONAI your God gives him into your hand, and you take captive his captives, 11 and you see in the captives a beautiful woman and you desire her and you take her to yourself as a wife, 12 you shall [or will] bring her into your house and she shall shave her head and do her fingernails, 13 and she shall remove her captivity-dress from her and she shall sit in your house and cry for her father and mother for a month’s time. And after that you may come to her and be her husband and she shall be a wife to you. 14 And if it happens [later] that you no longer want her, you shall send her off free, and you absolutely may not sell her for money. You are not to deal treacherously with her, because you have humbled her. 15 If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other hated, and they give birth to children for him, the beloved and the hated, and the firstborn is the son of the hated, 16 then, on the day when he wills to his sons his property (that which will be for him), he cannot choose the son of the beloved instead of the son of the hated, firstborn. 17 For the firstborn—the son of the hated—he must recognize, to give him a double share of all that is found with him, for he is the beginning of his strength and his is the judgment of the firstborn.                              !  "   #  !$%% &   ' %  &    "    '   ( %    )*  ' !  +    ! ,  *  ! -     +'             .   /  '   ! 0   ! $ 1  %  ' %         "      0 % # ' ' %  )  '  #!. 2!   3 - !    '   %!  ('  2 - 4 1     %  0   $   ( $  /+  0   ( /5   1  !.  / 5  64  0      !  (   . !   1   (  , 1 /5 !.   6   !.  1 /5 !     ,0  . !  (        !4 ,   !.   -3  Notes: 1. The translation varies. ! !- Sorar means stubborn, rebellious, perhaps ill-humored.  ! Moreh means rebellious, disobedient (as in the laws of the “rebellious elders”).  ! Moreh sounds quite similar to two other common Biblical