Ben Sorer uMoreh

I don’t defend the Torah’s ostensibly immoral laws, but I do try to understand what motivated them.

The Torah is often used to highlight various ethical values while its many ethically problematic commandments are ignored or explained away. Is there a way to treat the Torah as a moral authority while honestly confronting the ethical issues it raises?

Deuteronomy’s law of the rebellious son (Deuteronomy 21:18–21) poses numerous problems. Like the rabbis, Josephus interprets the law, but his conclusions are quite different.

Ben Sorer u-Moreh as a Test Case