I have often written in this column about the Talmud’s discomfort with various provisions of Torah law. Indeed, any time there is something in the Torah that strikes modern Jews as unjust or barbaric, the odds are that the rabbis of the Talmud felt the same way. The Talmudic discussion of the stubborn and rebellious son, ben sorer umoreh, is perhaps the most famous example. In Deuteronomy 21, the Torah says that the parents of such a son have the right to sentence him to public execution by stoning: ...Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.
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