Reply To: The Wicked Son

I heard an interesting explanation (I believe it was from R’ Chaim Volozhiner, but I can’t remember): Of course, when dealing directly with Wicked Son, one must try be ???? him. The suggestion for a cutting response isn’t a ?????, however.

If you look at the ????, it says “?? ??? ?? – ???? ??? ?? ?? ??? ????”. Surely it would be grammatically correct to say ?? ?? ??? when talking to the son?

The answer is – we are not talking to the son. We are talking to the rest of the family. You can be however nice you like to the son himself, but not at the expense of your other sons chinuch. If the Son acts like a ???? in front of the others, you have to immediately react sharply, and explain to them that such behaviour is not tolerated in ??? ?????. You cannot justify his behaviour in any way. Judaism has no space for “Live and Let Live”.

This explains why the ????, when bringing down the question of the Wicked Son (???? ?? ??) doesn’t make any mention of a sharp response; we give a very civilized response to the question. And of course we must, because simply acting harshly will be of no gain to anybody. But we cannot compromise the Chinuch of our other children. In front of them, an immediate sharp reaction must be made to denounce the stand of the Wicked Son, in order that they are not influenced.