Discover and learn every week, "5 Facts" written on the weekly Parshah that you can share at your Shabbos table.

1.     Did it really happen? Any other events that may have not happened?

• There are three events mentioned in the Torah that apparently never happened:

1. The Ben Sorer Umoreh
2. The Ir Hanidachas
3. Tzara'at on a house 

(On the other hand, Rabbi Yochanan said that he saw an Ir Hanidachas and the grave of a Ben Sorer uMoreh. So too, Rabbi Eliezer Ben Tzaddok and Rabbi Shimon Ish Kafar said that they saw tzaraat on a house.

2.     What does the father’s hand have to do with the ben sorer umoreh?

• From here the Talmud learns that if the boy’s father and/or mother can’t “take hold of him”  because they’re without a hand then the son can’t  be sentenced as  a ben sorer umoreh.^[1]

3.     What if one of the boy’s parents has a disability?

• From here the Talmud learns that if the boy’s father and/or mother is mute, blind, lame, deaf, or without hands, the son can’t be sentenced as  a ben sorer umoreh.^[2] The reason for this, is that people  who have a disability have a tendency to be cruel and we’re afraid the parent(s)  may be bringing their son to court because of cruelty and not for a justified reason.^[3]

4.     What happens to the bird’s mother after she’s sent away?

• The Midrash says that after we send away the mother bird she commits suicide by drowning herself in water.^[4]

5.     Why only Moabite men are banned from converting to Judaism?

• Moabite men are banned from converting and joining the Jewish people because they did not offer the Jewish people food and drink. Women, however, do not customarily go out and greet strangers with food and drink, and hence, they were not punished for not doing so. This is why Ruth was permitted to convert and join the Jewish people. On the other hand, since the Torah doesn’t give a reason why Edomites and Egyptians may not convert and join the Jewish people, we apply the ban equally to both men and women.^[5]