Parshas Ki Seitzei: The Wayward Son, Elul's Choice, and Walking the Right Path

Transcript

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If you didn't ask the question, well then you may not be paying attention, because it must be solved.

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This riddle, the riddle of the Ben Sorer U'morah, our Parsha, chapter 21,.

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Parachaf Hei Pasach, yodchas Ki yi, elo ish ben Soerer U'morah, einanu shaymea, bekoil aviv, ubekoil imo.

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When a man will have a wayward and defiant son who does not listen to his dad, to the voice of his mom, to the voice of his mom, and even after they discipline him, he still doesn't listen.

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So they grab him and they bring him to the elders, to the town center.

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This little young one, he's not like the others.

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He doesn't listen to our voices, he's a glutton and a drunkard.

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Thereupon, the men of his town shall stone this child to death.

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Thus will you sweep out the evil from your midst, so that all of Israel should hear and should tremble.

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This rebellious chap, murdered or put to death, gets the electric chair because he bowed down to an idol.

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Hardly Was he put to death for murder.

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Definitely not.

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The posse tells us.

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He simply did not listen to mom and dad.

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Now the Gemara expounds, to make things come into focus, that for the child to actually get the death penalty, it must be that he took the food and there's a certain amount of food 50 dinarim of meats worth from his dad Took some wine Can't just be cheap.

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Wine has to be a half a lug of wine and it must be drunken in one session.

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In order to get the death penalty.

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It must be that he ate it in his father's property.

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It had to be.

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He specifically ate food, stolen food.

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He didn't follow the rules in this area.

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For him to be a bensourah Amorah it has to be kosher food.

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If it's not kosher, no death penalty.

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It can't be a Suddhas Mitzvah If he would have stolen a bottle of fancy wine and used it for Shalashudis no can do.

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No death penalty.

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If his parents forgive him, no death penalty.

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If the child is younger than 13 years old, no death penalty.

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If he's older than 13 in a couple of months, no death penalty.

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It's a grand total of about three months that you can actually follow through on the Ben-Sorer-Umoreh ceremony If it is a Bas-Sorer-Umoreh.

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If it's a daughter, no can do.

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If he's a Tom-Tom, an Androgynous, any of these interesting types of people, if he has some sort of handicap, all of it doesn't apply.

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It has to be with every single condition in order to have this wayward child.

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It does allow some amount of ease from the question of why was this kid deserving of such an intense penalty?

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It is very rare, but still he didn't commit one of the three cardinal sins.

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Yet he's wayward and rebellious.

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He had a glass of wine and some meat, and we must therefore invite the entire congregation to watch the stoning To begin to understand this.

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We must be informed that the Torah tells us Rashi tells us that the Torah gets into the psyche, it understands it's yoyurid l'soiv daito to the judgment of this boy and knows where this path will lead.

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The judgment of this boy and knows where this path will lead.

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So therefore it's better for him that he should die righteous right here he hasn't committed any horrific crimes.

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But just take him out now so that he doesn't have to suffer the consequences and die an evil man, a man that never learned to follow the rules and ultimately ends up robbing and stealing from people to sustain his poor habits.

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He'll probably become a murderer.

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So let the boy die righteous and live eternally in the next world, then, yamos, and die guilty, and that's all good and well that it's for the boy's own good.

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But the Mizrahi asks one of the commentaries on Rashi, one of the most famous questions that we are told Just a couple books of the Torah ago, that Yishmael was judged by Asher Husham.

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The story of him and his mother, hagar, when they are rather thirsty for some water and they're teeter-tottering on life and death.

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The mother Hagar prays for her son, ishmael.

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Ishmael, and God is going to answer the pleas of Hagar, ishmael's mother, and the angels interject and say but Hashem, why not let this boy die now?

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Because he is going to murder so many innocent Jews and his grandkids and Dairi Dairis will murder millions of Jews, the Ishmaelim.

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So to the angels, now tell me, is this boy guilty or is he innocent?

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Is he righteous still?

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And the angels say they acquiesce to God and say true, at this point he is still a tzaddik and does not deserve death.

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But asher hu shom, says the Pesach in reference to this medrash.

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Like Hashem says, he is judged as he is now.

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We don't judge someone based on their future outcomes and decisions.

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So the Mizrahi questions how come the Bensorah Umorah gets a different punishment?

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How come he is judged differently?

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It seems he isn't judged by Asher Husham.

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God told us that we are judged based on how we are and how we look, but not the Bensorah Umorah.

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He is judged based on where this path will ultimately end up and, as we do in yeshiva to answer something without making up a possible answer but we examine what it says in front of us, what rules we have stated, what topics are given forth, and we just try to make a math equation to see what can be done to reconcile these two different teachings.

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What it says here in the gray area is that, yes, everyone is judged by Asher Husham.

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You're judged right here and right now, but based on the trajectory that you are on.

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We are judged where we stand, on the path on which we are going.

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But I share who's shum that the path that Yeshua was on, it wasn't an evil one.

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Maybe in the future things would change.

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But right here, in this spot on the trajectory where his rocket ship is pointing, it isn't pointed south, but the Bensurah O'Moara, he is judged in that same light.

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And where he is judged in that same light and where he is pointed at this moment, where he stands, that trajectory, well, that is nowhere good and the Ba'asher Husham is death.

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That is the Chilik.

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That is the difference.

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But to go deeper, what is the chilik.

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That is the difference.

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But to go deeper, what is the machalik?

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What actually lives underneath this difference?

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What does it say?

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That is so evil about Ben-Sorer Umorah?

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What makes his path so sinister?

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It is exactly what the words say Ein nenu shomea, ein nenu shomea, bekoil aviv.

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He just doesn't listen, no matter what his parents tell him.

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He just doesn't listen.

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No matter what his parents tell him, he just doesn't listen.

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He's been warned, brought to court and flogged, and yet still he continues his harmful ways.

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He has a disrespect for authority.

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He refuses to obey his elders and those that are his leaders.

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He is a nano shimea.

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That trajectory, an abhorrence for authority and abhorrence for authority, that trajectory and the state that you are in that trajectory, that rocket ship is pointed to the very bottom.

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It's astonishing that the path that gets such treatment from the Torah is the kid who doesn't listen, the kid who isn't coachable.

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Coachable, he doesn't listen, he doesn't respect his teachers, he thinks he knows better.

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That is even worse, it would seem, than to be at least coachable, malleable, capable of learning a new skill, even though one still does have sins under his belt.

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You know, the Gemara tells us that Yom Kippur is Mechaper Lashavim For those who do tshuva, simply repent and all is well.

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But repenting has a long process, many steps.

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It's a long journey, but Rabbi Yisrael Solanter, he gave us hope when he explained to us that mechaper Kippur, atones for those who repented is not the proper way to learn the Gemara.

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The way to translate it is that Yom Kippur atones for the ones who are returning in the present tense, those who have not completed the journey were not only them, but anyone who was on the path attempting to return.

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Yom Kippur is Mechaper.

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We have clear right here two different paths.

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There's a path of returners that all get forgiven and then there's God forbid another path the path, the trajectory of the path.

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Not only is he not forgiven, but he must have immediate death.

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He must merit immediate death to save him.

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Our derech, the path that you are on, and the path and its trajectory, where it is headed, is what Elul, this holy month of Elul, is about.

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When you discover that you are on a couple different wrong paths, with some questionable characters, you need not complete tshuva, but you need to recognize that you are on the wrong path and select a different one.

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When you select a path that is that of lashavim, those who are attempting to return.

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Yom keper is mechaper, but if God forbid, you're on the wrong path.

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Just like the Medrash and Re'eh tells us.

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The Yitzharah sits at the front of a forest and tells people go down this path.

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It's much more pleasant, that of an easy life and that of pleasure.

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Go down here.

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That is one path, but it quickly becomes thistles and thorns.

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It gets dark very quickly.

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They must say no to that path and select the other path that has some thistles and thorns at the very beginning, some brutal potholes and some long days, but ultimately it gets much smoother and the asphalt is freshly paved and there's nothing but smooth sailing on this autobahn path of Bracha.

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That's the path we're supposed to be on.

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Our job during Elul is to stay far from the, the path of the child.

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Our job during Elul is to stay far from the Einen U'shomea, the path of the child.

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That isn't coachable, for that is the worst of all paths.

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And our job during Elul is to select the path, the derech Hashem.

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You don't need to complete the journey, you just simply need to recognize if you're on the wrong path and select the right path.

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And that's done by allowing yourself to be coachable, by listening to your parents, by listening to your teachers, by taking to heart what your rabbis will tell you, am I not throwing off the yoke of obedience and of having such horrible disdain for authority?

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When we listen to the smart ones, to those that sit above the corn maze of life, we get pure expert advice.

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And when you're on the path Lashavim, of this path of Hashem returning, then you merit the great miracle of tshuva and atonement that happens on Yom Kippur, because you are on the path of the just, the derech Hashem, and the path that's trajectory is pointing up.

Parshas Ki Seitzei: The Wayward Son, Elul's Choice, and Walking the Right Path

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